Summer 2021

HIS 102: Introduction to World Civilization

Department of History and Philosophy, North South University

LECTURE 1:
INTRODUCTION TO WORLD
CIVILIZATIONS

DR. KAZI MARUFUL ISLAM

kazi.islam07@northsouth.edu
19 June 2021
DISCUSSION POINTS
§ Learning History of World
Civilization: Why?
§ How to understand the term
CIVILIZATION?
§ Pedagogy: How to learn?
§ Purpose of the course: What to
learn, why to learn?
§ Outcome: How to think critically,
how to connect past with present?
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THE WORD
“CIVILIZATION”?
A PUZZLE
Samoa Island Nude Airplane
Africa Inka
Dhaka
New York
Cave Dogs
Pizza
Indigenous London
Polygamy
Congo Jungle
Assam
Aboriginal Marriage
University Language
Internet
Egypt Agriculture Shimpanzi
Dollar
A PUZZLE
§ Put these words into two boxes named: Civilized and
Uncivilized
§ Explain the relationship among the words you have selected
in a specific box
§ Give your argument in favor of the organization of the words
A STORY
A STORY
A STORY
A STORY
WE ARE AT OUR BEST WHEN WE
SERVE OTHERS.
BE CIVILIZED.
CIVILIZATION: MEANING
§ Civilization is any complex society characterized
by urban development, social stratification, a form of
government and symbolic systems of communication
such as writing
§ Civilization is a form of human culture in which many
people live in urban centers, have mastered the art of
smelting metals, and have developed a method of writing.
§ A civilization is a complex human society that may have
certain characteristics of cultural and technological
development.
§ https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/civ
ilizations/
BIAS IN WRITING THE HOSTORY OF WORLD
CIVILIZATION
§European Supremacy
§Colonial Legitimacy
§Racial Supremacy
§Male Supremacy
PEDAGOGY: HOW TO LEARN
§ From passive listener to active question
§ From narrative description to critical analysis
§ From lecture to engagement
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?
§ However, there is no one concrete definition of history except to
say that it deals w the people and what has happened to them.
According to Graves (1992), "History is the record of what people
did or failed to do"(p.17).
§ History is not "a series of isolated events. It is about how people
living together, and trying to solve problems together” (Johnson
and Ebert 1991, p.5).
§ History studies people and in doing so takes into account ethnic
groups, social trends, wars, religion, philosophy, organizations,
business, love and leisure, political orientations and what Petei
Sterns (1989) defined as social history: history which looks at
demographic trends, leisure activities, emotional changes, family
relationships, and children. Social history examines "trends and
processes rather than events and individual personalities” (p. 14).
WHY DO WE STUDY HISTORY?
§ People live in the present. They plan for and worry about
the future. History, however, is the study of the past. Given
all the demands that press in from living in the present and
anticipating what is yet to come. It shows all the desirable
and available branches of knowledge.
§ Helps Us Understand People and Societies.
§ History Contributes to Moral Understanding
§ History Provides Identity.
§ Studying History Is Essential for Good Citizenship.
 PURPOSE OF THE COURSE
§ This course aims to introduce students to the rich diversity of
human civilization from antiquity to the 16th century.
§ In this course, we will explore the evolution of human
civilization
§ We will work comparatively, reading texts from various
cultures: Mesopotamian, Greek, Judeo-Christian, Chinese,
Indian, and Muslim.
HOW TO STUDY HISTORY?
§ World history is comparative, transregional and transcultural approach to
the study of history,
§ World History offers a global perspective on past events, as well as
cultural and geographic developments over time.
§ Instead of focusing on discrete events, World History takes a big-picture
approach to history and considers how those events relate to each other
in a larger human story.
§ 1.Develop ideas make connection.
§ 2.Relating important information.
§ 3.Watch movies.
§ 4.Reading history book.
SOURCES OF HISTORY
§ 1.Contemporary.
§ 2.Confidential records.
§ 3.Public reports.
§ 4.Government documents.
§ 5.Pulic opinion
§ 6. Archeological evidences
§ 7. Personal memoir
§ 8. Travelogue
THANKS