User:Litzi813/Civilization

Eurocentric Views of Civilizations
Modern academia regarding the study of civilizations, and history as a whole, has had a distinctly Eurocentric viewpoint dominate the field. Eurocentrism, as the name implies, treats European history as the central subject of study; it excludes other civilizations in favor of Europe. While it cannot be denied that European history plays an important role in global history, Eurocentric views dismiss the study of the rest of the world.

The prevalence of Eurocentric thought in academia can be attributed to the fact that Europeans have been the main figureheads in academia. Despite Europe's slow start onto the world stage, Europe soon became the colonial powerhouse that would dominate the rest of the world. History is written by the winners; Europeans were the only large group of people that could extensively study history, and thus Eurocentrism was born. Rather than examine other cultures, academics began measuring civilizations against a Western standard. This framework also was supported by Americans; the country had come from European roots, and so follow European thought, thus perpetuating the continuing cycle of Eurocentric thought.

Religious Origins
When learning about civilization there was often a need to emphasize European civilizations and under appreciate eastern civilizations. There are many reasons for why this Eurocentric viewpoint took over history classes and textbooks. One of the reasons is religion. At the time of making history, religion was important for every aspect of civilization. People depended on religion, legally, politically, socially, and culturally, all around the globe. Many countries led with Christian inspired viewpoints, while other's led with Islamic viewpoints, regardless of where people were, and what their religious beliefs were, religion cultivated every part of day-to-day lives. Some examples of this can be in Roman Catholic countries, people studied astronomy in order to explain how God created the cosmos where the reason for Gregorian Reform was to explain and further exceed God’s power on the Catholic People and “astronomy...was absolutely central to the authority of Rome”, so “the Roman Catholic Church gave more financial and social support to the study of astronomy than did any other institution" . In Islamic countries, people studied astronomy for the sole purpose of knowing which direction to pray in . Therefore, it makes sense that when European and American countries started recounting history about powerful civilizations, they would only include Christian led civilizations. However, this Eurocentric viewpoint came at an expense though, where now multiple historians are upset and discouraged with the lack of information on other civilizations outside of the European circle. And have written many articles highlighting powerful civilizations all throughout the Eurasian continent, and the cultural richness and significance outside of the Eurocentric circle.

Criticism
Our understanding of what distinguishes a Civilization has been debated by historians for decades. In the late 20th century, historians began critiquing Eurocentrism with respect to what is considered civilization. Historians such as Edward Farmer and Syed Farid Alatas have argued that a Eurocentric view of what a Civilization is has led to the simplifying and paternal view of the Eurasian landmass. Farmer argues that Asia is not a comparable unit to that of Europe. Asia has no unifying tradition, religion language or culture and is often used to describe the non-European portion of the eurasian landmass. Farmer argues that there are more than three civilizations in Asia which could be comparable to Europe. This is portrayed most serious as an intellectual problem. Farmer offers an example of Eurocentrism in the scholastic world citing a popular textbook by R.R Palmer and Joel Colton entitled “A History of the Modern World” which is described as “a history of Europe and European civilization.”  Syed Farid Alatas, a prominent Malaysian scholar and sociologist argues that our understanding of civilization is that of a Eurocentric perspective which harms individuals' understanding of themselves. He argues that changes need to be made in education systems to provide positive aspects about the contributions many other civilization have made to modern Europe such as from the India, Chinese and Islamic civilizations.

In these education systems, European civilizations are often overemphasized and other civilizations deemphasized. The Copernican revolution is often considered the trigger of the Scientific Revolution and has many recognized names attached: Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Newton etc. The understanding of the Copernican revolution being an entirely European phenomenon is an artifact of Eurocentrism and does not show a complete picture. Arun Bala, physicist and philosopher of science argues that a revolution in Europe could not have happened without mathematical contributions from India and Arabia. Bala continues this argument citing the many mathematical, theoretical and empirical contributions from a whole host of cultures towards the understanding of a rotating and revolving earth. Bala argues that many scientific discoveries are amalgamations of discoveries made by many civilizations and that the Copernican Revolution is not an exception.