Civilizations and world-systems: studyng world-historical change,
ed. Stephen K. Sanderson, Alta Mira Press, 1995, p. 25-45
Valiant attempts to define and describe giant cultures have become familiar in the 20th century. Spongier, Toynbee, Sorokin, and Kroeber have each offered impressive systems involving the conception of a number of exclusive, durable, mortal macrocultures that have come to be called "civilizations. " That these attempts have aroused considerable interest derives, no doubt, from a feeling that our own civilization might be facing the possibility of coming to an end, of "dying" if you will, as others apparently have in the past.
Valiant attempts to define and describe giant cultures have become familiar in the 20th century. Spongier, Toynbee, Sorokin, and Kroeber have each offered impressive systems involving the conception of a number of exclusive, durable, mortal macrocultures that have come to be called "civilizations. " That these attempts have aroused considerable interest derives, no doubt, from a feeling that our own civilization might be facing the possibility of coming to an end, of "dying" if you will, as others apparently have in the past.