Western Civilization

Western Civilization

Introduction

It is by no means, easy to see civilization itself in a proper perspective. There are three obvious means to this end: travel, history and anthropology, but none of them is so great aid to the objectivity as they seem. The traveler sees only what interests him, for example, Marco Polo never noticed the small feet of Chinese women. The civilization history is very old and has developed over centuries. The Europe heritage of civilization and the Colonialism is very diverse and vast.

To speak of the 'European heritage' is to refer to both a historical tradition and at the same time a consciousness of a tradition that is relevant to the self-understanding of the present. History considered in terms of what happened in the past and the knowledge of that history constitutes the ground of heritage and memory. It is where a political community defines itself. That there is something called European history in the sense of the history of Europe is a point on which some agreement can be found, but to invoke the notion of a European heritage is a different and more contentious matter. In this book, that is been reviewed, Western Civilization is discussed and the European heritage.

Discussion

In the movement from history to heritage there is an evaluation of the past in order for the present to judge what legacy it should derive from history. The debate about European heritage is very much a question of identifying the cultural resources that might be relevant to the current challenges of European societies. Thus, to speak of European heritage is to take up a position on European history that reflects the kind of self-understanding that has come into existence today. It is a characteristic of present-day Europe that history has entered into the consciousness of a European identity that is not merely a political identity but also entails a cultural dimension. Collective identities generally do include a narrative of their genesis and often have a myth of origin. It is therefore not surprising that this consciousness of a shared past would enter into the articulation of a European identity. But the nature of this shared past is far from clear, for very often it is an invented past while for others it is one that has been distorted by violence against minorities and bears the legacy of colonialism. In short, it is not possible to speak of a European cultural heritage without considering alongside it its political meaning. For this reason the European cultural and political heritage cannot be separated. It is not possible, as is all too often the case in EU historiography, to see a political heritage emerging out of deeply rooted cultural orientations.

Memory and the Cultural Logic of Heritage

Earlier the Great Schism of 1054 effectively severed the unity of a Christian civilization, which was divided furthermore with the Reformation. In the twentieth century, the end of the two world wars marked the end of an age. The year 1918 marked the end of the nineteenth century and ...