"J. R. Molloy" wrote:
>
> From: Emmanuel Charpentier <manu@cybercable.fr>
> > So again occidentals have impacts on other civilisations??? Do I
> >have the big picture?
>
> How many civilizations reside in your big picture?
It's not my idea, but I saw the interview of an author speaking about one of his book (that I haven't found yet). In his book he explains that the current world is divided not in countries, but in civilizations.
A civilization being a group of people who share common values, such as religion, history, geography, language, legends, resources, political systems, technology...etc.
You will probably agree that there is effectively an 'occidental' civilization. Started in europe, now all across the atlantic and in australia.
We can also speak of an indian civilization, a muslim (or arabian), a chinese, a slavic (east europe-russia), an african. He added a japanese one.
On the moment I was hearing about it, I didn't notice it as -that- ground breaking. But nowadays, I use it more and more as a world model. Although I'm not sure there are exactly 7 civilisations (why not add turkie or remove japan, what about south america etc...), the concept looks more powerfull to me than countries or continents or skin colors or cities...
Manu.