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    Elements of Human Civilizations: SPRING 2021

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    Shitab Ashhab Chowdhury
    This document provides an overview of a lecture on elements of human civilizations. It discusses the key elements and characteristics that define civilizations, including urban centers, agriculture, writing systems, social stratification, and shared culture. It also introduces different approaches to studying history, such as positivism, constructivism, and postcolonialism. Historians seek to understand past events through interpreting empirical evidence and considering their own contexts. The origins of agriculture were an important development in early civilizations.

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    Elements of Human Civilizations: SPRING 2021

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    Shitab Ashhab Chowdhury
    30 views20 pages
    This document provides an overview of a lecture on elements of human civilizations. It discusses the key elements and characteristics that define civilizations, including urban centers, agriculture, writing systems, social stratification, and shared culture. It also introduces different approaches to studying history, such as positivism, constructivism, and postcolonialism. Historians seek to understand past events through interpreting empirical evidence and considering their own contexts. The origins of agriculture were an important development in early civilizations.

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    This document provides an overview of a lecture on elements of human civilizations. It discusses the key elements and characteristics that define civilizations, including urban centers, agriculture, writing systems, social stratification, and shared culture. It also introduces different approaches to studying history, such as positivism, constructivism, and postcolonialism. Historians seek to understand past events through interpreting empirical evidence and considering their own contexts. The origins of agriculture were an important development in early civilizations.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    30 views20 pages

    Elements of Human Civilizations: SPRING 2021

    Uploaded by

    Shitab Ashhab Chowdhury
    This document provides an overview of a lecture on elements of human civilizations. It discusses the key elements and characteristics that define civilizations, including urban centers, agriculture, writing systems, social stratification, and shared culture. It also introduces different approaches to studying history, such as positivism, constructivism, and postcolonialism. Historians seek to understand past events through interpreting empirical evidence and considering their own contexts. The origins of agriculture were an important development in early civilizations.

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    of 20

    SPRING 2021

    DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY


    NORTH SOUTH UNIVERSITY
    HIS102: INTRODUCTION TO WORLD CIVILIZATIONS

    Lecture 3:
    Elements of Human Civilizations

    Dr. Kazi Maruful Islam


    [email protected]
    25 February 2021
    TALKING POINTS

    • Elements and Characteristics of civilization


    • Methods and Approaches to Study History:
    • What is history
    • Historiography
    • Neolithic: Agriculture Revolution
    INTERNAL SYSTEM OF CIVILIZATION
    THREE DIMENSIONS OF CIVILIZATION

    • Societal Dimension: Organization into a society through


    the development of structure and division of labor
    • Cultural Dimension: Development of human
    communication, shared values and system of meaning
    • Infrastructre Dimension: evolution through of intra and
    inter civilization issues like war and peace, transport,
    technology and means of domination and production
    CHARACTERISTICS OF CIVILIZATIONS

    • Historians, anthropologists, and other scholars have identified


    several core characteristics of civilization.
    • Some of the most commonly suggested characteristics include
    urban centers, agricultural manipulation and storage, irrigation, written
    language, standards of measurements, craftsmanship technology, social
    stratification, state government, a common religion and/or ideological
    outlook, and a shared culture.
    • Some has also suggested that military technology, system of
    taxation or tribute, education system, monumental architecture
    WHAT IS HISTORY?

    • The term is derived from Greek word


    “historia” means “knowledge acquired
    through inquiry or investigation”
    WHAT IS HISTORY?

    • History is the study of the past as it is described in written


    documents.
    • Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory.
    • It is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the
    memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and
    interpretation of information about these events.
    WHAT IS HISTORY?

    • History is the study of change and development in society over


    time. The study of history enables us to understand how past
    human action affects the present and influences our future, and
    it allows us to evaluate these effects.
    • History is about learning how to think about the past, which
    affects the present, in a disciplined way.
    • History is a process of enquiry.
    WHAT IS HISTORY?

    • Therefore, it is about asking questions of the past:


    • What happened?
    • When did it happen?
    • Why did it happen then?
    • What were the short-term and long-term results?
    • It involves thinking critically about the stories people tell us
    about the past, as well as the stories that we tell ourselves
    APPROACHES TO STUDY HISTORY

    • HISTORIOGRAPHY: history of history/methods of


    writing history
    • Let’s us have a better understanding of history
    • Not only get to learn historical facts, but also provided
    with the understanding of the facts’ and historian’s
    contexts
    APPROACHES TO STUDY HISTORY

    • History is a distinctive and well-established academic discipline


    with its own methods and discourses.
    • Its field of study is potentially limitless, in that it encompasses the
    totality of past human experience.
    • Among scholars who study history there can be differences and
    even controversy between some who regard it as an account of
    an actual past, and others who view it as an entirely imagined
    or constructed past.
    CONTESTING SCHOOLS OF ENQUIRY

    • POSITIVISM
    • emerged between 18th and 19th century
    • It requires empirical and observable evidence before one
    can claim that a particular knowledge is true
    • entails an objectives mean of arriving at a conclusion
    • Positivist historians are expected to be objective and
    impartial not just in their arguments but also on their
    conduct of historical research
    CONTESTING SCHOOLS OF ENQUIRY

    • CONSTRUCTIVISM
    • historical knowledge could be seen from a constructivist
    epistemology
    • They argue that the discipline of history as embodying
    multiple and sometimes competing narratives of the past.
    • It is essentially a constructed past through subjective
    interpretation for specific purpose(s)
    CONTESTING SCHOOLS OF ENQUIRY

    • POSTCOLONIALISM
    • Emerged in early 20th century when formerly colonized
    nations grapples with the idea of creating their identities
    and understanding their societies against the shadows of
    their colonial past
    POSTCOLONIALISM

    • Looks at 2 things in writing history:


    • (1) To tell history of their nation that will highlight their
    identity free from that of colonial discourse and knowledge
    • (2) To criticize the methods, effects and idea of colonialism
    • Postcolonial history therefore a reaction and an alternative to
    the colonial history that colonial powers created and taught to
    their subjects
    WHAT DO HISTORIANS DO?
    • They not only seek historical evidences and facts but also
    • interpret these facts to give meaning to these facts and
    • organize them into a timeline
    • establish causes
    • Historians need to be considered as a person who is influenced by
    his own context, environment, ideology, education
    • His/her is interpretation of the historical fact is affected by his
    context and circumstances
    • his subjective intention inevitably influences the process of
    his historical research: the methodology he will use, the
    facts he shall select and deem relevant, his interpretation
    and the form of his writings
    HISTORICAL METHODOLOGY

    • Compromises certain techniques and rules that historians follow


    in order to properly utilize sources and historical evidences in
    writing history
    • Certain rules apply in cases of conflicting accounts in different
    sources, and on how to properly treat eyewitness accounts and
    oral sources as valid historical evidence
    SOURCES OF HISTORICAL DATA

    • HISTORICAL SOURCES
    • Primary sources: sources produced at the same time as the event,
    period, or subject being studied.
    • Eyewitness accounts of convention delegates and their memoirs are
    used as primary sources
    • Archival documents, artifacts, memorabilia, letters, census, and
    government records
    • Secondary sources: sources that are produced by an author who
    used primary sources to produce the material are secondary
    historical sources, which studied a certain historical subject
    AGRICULTURE REVOLUTION

    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvBHwVpBCwM
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rboewQNMpdU
    THANKS

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