Classification of civilizations Part 2
Creating a classification, it takes into account the peculiarities of religion, the existence of a universal state of existence internal and external proletariat (by which he means social groups, inherent to the society), draws parallels between the historical facts, social unrest, wars, especially the world (it is directed to the future or in the past), said common language and so on. p. Highlighted in result of a comparative analysis of 21 civilization, AJ. Toynbee notes a very distant period of their occurrence compared with the whole of human history: in his opinion, it is only 2% or 1/50 of human life. Given this fact, it offers hypothetically consider these 21 society as simultaneous and equivalent in order to compare them with primitive societies. Many differences, they are listed AJ.
Toynbee in random, sometimes figurative manner. Here is an example one explanation: “Primitive society as we know them from direct observation, can be likened to people lying in a state of hibernation on a mountain ledge between the upper and lower cliffs. Civilization can be likened to companions of sleepers that are already up and started to climb rock up “The author does not insist on its proposed among civilizations, believing that a thorough investigation can narrow or expand the list opposite. In addition, the genesis of civilizations determines the inevitable changes in the list. The fundamental feature in its classification – the degree of continuity: “Fifteen of our societies are affiliated in respect of the same species precursors”. “These make up fifteen groups other than those six, which we can see arising directly from primitive life.” This latter group he includes Egyptian, Sumerian, Minoan, ancient Chinese, Mayan and Andean society”.
In this number were detained in the development of civilizations and not paying attention to underdeveloped, it gets number 26.” Of the twenty-six are at least sixteen dead and forgotten. The remaining ten – a Western society, the main trunk of Orthodox Christianity in the Middle East, its branch in Russia, Islamic society, Hindu society, the main trunk of the Far Eastern society in China and its branch in Japan and three detainees civilization Polynesians, Eskimos and nomads. “The setting nature and character of civilizations AJ. Toynbee is not categorical, it seeks to take into account many as separate civilizations (“death throes”, “danger of destruction or assimilation, “fracture traces” and crossing railway “Stages of decay”), so they used the terminology for the classification is varied, and flourished, fossils and detained in the development of independent and synthetic separated (isolated) and partitioned spatially overlap geographically separate from other primary and secondary, developed and underdeveloped, independent civilization, and civilization-wide historical material.
Toynbee carefully examines the nature of some environmental places of origin were actually civilizations from designates outstanding human achievements, notes easy and difficult living conditions, compares different difficulty levels, stimulating effect of the environment, and concludes that the light conditions unfavorable for civilization. He said that impetus to the development of civilization is the stronger, the more severe environmental conditions.
Consideration of the environment, it similarly calls for consideration of the human environment. Here he distinguishes impact on society or the state of their neighbors when the human environment they face is “foreign” or “alien”. Otherwise, when one social class (the term “class” is used here in its broadest sense) affects another within the same community – relations are “internal” or “domestic”.
Arnold Toynbee details the features of external influences, “pressure” and “limit”. In addition, it considers the incentive of severe and “new earth”, illustrating their manifestations in specific historical. In result, he concludes that” civilization not unusually light, but extremely difficult to live environment. This in turn led us to wonder whether we have to deal here with an example of a social law which can be expressed in the formula: “the greater the challenge, the greater the incentive”. But then the question arises: what can happen if the call will be excessive?