Five Epochs of Civilization
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Five Epochs of Civilization: World History as Emerging in Five Civilizations (2000) is a history book by America writer William McGaughey. The book has two principal aims: to tell the story of world history (or of the human experience) in a coherent and meaningful way, and to create a truly universal scheme of world history, avoiding regional, national, and religious bias.
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[edit] Overview
The scheme of civilizations adopted in Five Epochs of Civilizations follows Toynbee and others in envisioning a basic cultural difference between "pre-civilized" or tribal societies and societies that are "civilized". To possess the art of written language would be a primary distinction. So would be a development in the type of society from small communities organized by kinship to the monarchical form of government maintained by laws and force of arms. Unlike most historians, however, McGaughey maintains that the progression to a "post-literate'" society in which new technologies of electronic recording and broadcasting have tended to dominate public discourse indicates change to a new civilization, fundamentally different from earlier models.
However, the "Five Epochs" scheme sees a finer distinction between epochs of civilization than pre-literate, literate, and post-literate. The "literate" category is subdivided into three, and the "post-literate" into two. The distinctive communication technologies for each of the five civilizations are as follows:
- ideographic writing (a written symbol for each word)
- alphabetic writing (a written symbol for each elemental sound in a word)
- printing (the use of machines to do the writing)
- Electronic recording and broadcasting (phonograph, motion pictures, radio, and television)
- computer communication (the Internet)
A major thrust of this scheme is to tell world history in terms of creating the type of society that we see today, tracing its development in stages from primitive societies. Human societies are filled with various institutions of power. First one institution, then another, became fully developed at particular times in world history, each development correlated with an epoch of history. First, monarchical government became defined as an institution apart from the temple priesthood. Second, world religions appeared - the three main ones being Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam - and developed a power-sharing arrangement with government. Third, following the Renaissance, institutions of commerce and secular education became powerful. Fourth, the various new technologies of electronic communication gave rise to a popular culture focused on news and entertainment. Finally, computer communication, still in its infancy, promises changes in the structure of society comparable to what has gone before.
Each such institution in society has a significant relationship between itself and the mode of communication which became dominant at the same time. Also, the significant history of the period often focuses upon the institution.
This scheme of history lends itself to predictions of the future society. It follows an organic view of society in which birth and growth to maturity are followed by decline and replacement by a new civilization.
[edit] Reception
The book has been favorably reviewed in China, India, Pakistan, and Nigeria, among other places.[1] A website in English and five other European languages presents its concepts.[2] Two separate translations have been made into the Chinese language, one by translators for the Shandong Pictorial Book Company of Jinan and the other by Adi Dai, chief correspondent of the Xin Hua news agency in west Africa.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- William McGaughey. Five Epochs of Civilization: World History As Emerging in Five Civilizations. Thistlerose Publications (February 2000). ISBN 0-9605630-3-2
- World History Site, Presenting a New Theory of World History.
