Grand Model of Civilization
* Article: Targowski, Andrew (2004) "A Grand Model of Civilization," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 51 : No. 51 , Article 7.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr/vol51/iss51/7
Description
Andrew Targowski:
"The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive generic model of civilizations and world civilization, applying the cybernetic technique of analysis and synthesis. Particularly, the role of info-communication processes is important for this quest, because it is strongly influencing the civilizational progress at the beginning of the 21" century. Three models developed by Braudel (1993), Koneczny (1962), and Toynbee (1934-61) serve as both justification for this type of study and the foundation for a new defined model. The spectacular progress in technology and living standards achieved by mankind at the beginning of the third millennium prompts research on the grand view of the human condition.
Numerous questions need to be answered:
• What is a civilization? • What types of civilizations can be recognized at the beginning of the third millennium? • What are the relationships between any particular civilization and the world civilization? • What is the role of information and communication in a civilization? • What types of laws govern existing civilizations and which laws should govern the world civilization? • What are the prospects for a world civilization?
Answers to these questions should help us to understand our current condition and the direction of its improvement or perhaps mankind's further well-being."
Typology
From Societal To Cultural To Infrastructural Civilizations
Andrew Targowski:
"There is only one world civilization yet there are about 29 main autonomous civilizations that have been developed over the past 6,000 years. Perhaps, if one could find more autonomous civilizations or rather satellite civilizations (cultures), their number could possibly reach 100 or more. However, for the clarity of this synthesis, we would like to limit the scope of considerations to 29 of the autonomous civilization types. In this sense Toynbee, as well as Braudel, were right; there is one civilization and at the same time there are many civilizations.
The world civilization as a continuum never dies—only evolves from one stage to another. This evolution takes place through the life cycle of autonomous civilizations. At the very beginning of human civilization, there were several successful formations of living processes that could be considered initial autonomous civilizations. They took place in different parts of the world and created about eight cases. The first autonomous civilization was the Sumerian in Mesopotamia and the next two were the Harappan in western India and the Egyptian, about 4,000 B.C. In the Far East, the first autonomous civilizations rose inland: Indie, about 2,500 B.C., and Sinic about 1,500. In Africa the initial civilization was the Berberic-Carthagean Civilization 600 B.C. and, in South America early autonomous civilizations included the Andean Civilization that emerged about 1500 B.C. In Central America the first autonomous civilization was the Meso-American Civilization which rose 1000 BC. Both civilizations fell about 1600 AD. Autonomous civilizations rose in a response to physical challenges of nature (ecosystem).
Humans began to organize themselves into a society, which provided exchangeable and specialized services, such as food hunting, food production, house building, road construction, transportation, health care, entertainment, and so forth. These services and growing human communication led towards the formation of cities. These types of autonomous civilizations we will call societal civilizations.
In addition to the environmental challenges, societal civilization as a whole was threatened by its own internal structure involving power, wealth creation, beliefs enforcement, family formation, leadership, and so forth. As societal civilizations evolved into more complex entities, they were managed by cultural manipulation. By culture, we mean a value-driven patterned behavior of a human entity. This type of autonomous civilization we will name the cultural civilization. Ever since religion was transformed from beliefs in magic to beliefs in poly-gods and to then to a mono-god, the cultural civilization has applied religion as the main tool of cultural control. Religious and military force were the foundations of the power apparatus that maintained the society as a governed entity. These forces civilized the society and moved it into higher levels of organization. Among cultural civilizations, one can recognize about 17 cases, such as the Egyptian Civilization, 3100 B.C.; Minoan, 2700 B.C.; Mycean. 1500 B.C.; Sinic, 1500 B.C.; Hebrew, 800 B.C.; Hellenic , 750 B.C.; Persian, 600 B.C to 600 A.D.; Canaanite Civilization 1100 B.C.; Hindu Civilization 600 B.C.; Roman Civilization, 31 B.C.; Eastern Orthodox, 350 A.D.; Hellenistic Civilization, 323 B.C.; Buddhist Civilization, 600 A.D.; Ethiopian Civilization 400 A.D., the SubSaharan Civilization 800 A.D., the Western Civilization 800 A.D., the Islamic Civilization, 632 A.D.; and the Maghrebian (Islamic Spain and North Africa), 1000 A.D.
The cultural civilization evolves into a civilization with challenges generated by intra and inter-civilizational issues of war and peace. These types of issues have been managed by technological means of domination. Such a civilization we will call the infrastructural civilization.
The infrastructural civilization's purpose is to expand spheres of influence with the means of technology. Technology drives the development of infrastructural civilizations. The prime target of technology applications has been a war machine which supports the main values of a given civilization. By-products of military applications of technology affect the civilian part of its infrastructure. Among eight infrastructural civilizations one can recognize Sinic 1500 B.C., Hindu 600 B.C., the Japanese 650 A.D., Western Civilization 800 A.D., the Byzantine 350 A.D., Buddhist 600 A.D., and the Islamic Civilization (limited to Ottoman Empire) 1300 A.D. By the end of the second millennium, infrastructural civilizations had become civilizations responsible for world and regional influence and domination. Hence, Western Civilization dominates the Western Hemisphere and Japan, Australia, and New Zealand; Hindu civilization dominates South Asia, Islamic Civilization dominates North Africa, the Middle East, and some parts of the Far East Hemisphere; the Chinese and Japanese dominate the Far East, with Buddhist civilizations influencing a small part of the Far East. In the majority of autonomous civilizations, one can differentiate more than one culture, with the exception of the Egyptian, Hittite, and Japanese Civilizations, which are monocultural. Figure 4 provides 75 examples of empirical civilizational cultures. By "empirical" cultures we would like to emphasize that their names have been created by historians along the discovery process. Of course, some names have been modified to read as they are perceived nowadays."
(https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1618&context=ccr)
Elements of Civilization
Andrew Targowski:
"The new model of civilization recognizes the following elements (dimensions):
• Human Entity - organized humans in the pursuit of civilization; it is an existence-driven community,
• Culture - a value-driven continuous process of developing a patterned human behavior, and
• Infrastructure - a technology-driven additive process of acquiring and applying material means."
(https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1618&context=ccr)
For more detail, see also: Element-Based Method of Civilization Study