“文明”观念史研究的西方视角和全球视角——基于埃利亚斯和马兹利什相关研究的思考

Western and Global Perspectives in the Study of the History of the Idea of“Civilization”——Reflections Based on Elias’and Mazlish’s Related Studies

“文明”观念史研究始于20世纪初,其中以诺贝特·埃利亚斯的《文明的进程》最具代表性,但埃利亚斯从西方视角出发的研究,建构起一种“文明”观念研究的西方中心主义叙事。进入21世纪,布鲁斯·马兹利什的《文明及其内涵》出版于全球史兴起这一时代背景下,他从全球视角出发来审视“文明”观念变迁的历史,并对西方历史上的“文明”话语进行了反思。从《文明的进程》到《文明及其内涵》的变化,反映了“文明”观念史研究中的西方中心主义叙事从建构到解构的历程。

The study of the history of the idea of“civilization”began at the beginning of the twentieth century,with Norbert Elias’s The Process of Civilization being the most representative,but Elias’s research from a Western perspective constructed a Western-centered narrative about the idea of“civilization”.In entering the 21st century,Bruce Mazlish’s Civilization and Its Contents was published in the context of the emergence of global history,in which he examined the history of changes in the concept of“civilization”from a global perspective and reflected on the discourse of“civilization”in Western history.The change from The Process of Civilization to Civilization and Its Connotations reflects the journey from the construction to the deconstruction of the Western-centered narrative in the study of the history of the concept of“civilization”.