Journal of China in Global and Comparative Perspectives

Abstract: Part of this paper was written as the “Presentation of the Theme” at the academic forum “Cross-Civilization Interactions: The Perspective of Chinese Ethnology” held by the Ethnology and Sociology Institute of Xinjiang Normal University on 18-21 November 2013, while the rest of its content was presented as a lecture with the same title at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on 15 April 2014. This paper looks at the different definitions of the concept of civilization in Western learning in an historical and archaeological context, especially the two definitions of “single or multiple” civilizations that emerged in the 18th and 19th century, and how ethnology, social anthropology, and sociology wavered between them a hundred years later. The aim of this article is to sort out the history of a pre-existent concept; however, this does not mean only summarizing the history, which hardly contains the author’s interpretive orientation. Borrowing from this configuration, I define civilization as a supra-societal system, also providing a further explanation of what a supra-social system is, while also implicitly pointing out that, since supra-social systems are part of all societies, the nationalities face a double issue – their relationship with the regional and world systems beyond them, and their relationship with the civilization intrinsic to but as well beyond them, which represent a heavy burden for them.

Keywords: civilizations; urban revolution; Eurasian continent; ethnology; tradition; social anthropology