History of Mankind - A View Based on the Timeline of the Word 'Culture'

Back to the beginning point, there was no word called culture like the one we know today. The word 'culture' now actually started with the word colore in Latin. Again, 'colore' didn't mean colour like it should be at present. It meant cultivate with the meaning of agriculture, nothing related to humans yet. In the 15th century, this word was adopted by the English language (*) (if you have time, it was quite interesting to look back at the English language history and the result of it on the people at that time). Of course, there hasn't been any change in how you pronounce the word 'culture' like you do today, just another way of writing it. In the 16th century, there was a big change in its meaning. Surprisingly, if shifted to the sense of education. Here is an example:

In somewhere between the 18th century and 19th century, it finally came to the meaning which we think it is at the moment. Oh, and one interesting fact, not until this remarkable point, the word 'culture' started to have plural form 'cultures'. This was also the time when people began to realize that there were differences among human groups. The result? Anthropology was created. 

Another addition to this, in Asia, the word 'culture' was translated and adopted by the Japanese first. Later, it was brought to China and Korea from Japan. 'Culture' uses the two existed Chinese characters 文 (literature, writing) and 化 (change, transformation). However, at the time when they first knew this word, it was described as 'living conditions' and 'values' rather than the current meaning.

Basically, I will just give you some of the main characteristics of the ways you (might) look at 'culture.' 

Everything at this time was put under God and the King. The King was usually described as the Son, Special Angel, Servant,... of God. Disobey the King is going against God. You can find this model anywhere. In Southeast Asian history, even though the model existed in two more parallel systems, the functions were still quite similar (**). However, in this case, we will take Christian as the clearest example. When the White came and took American Indian's land, not skin colour but RELIGION was what they cared about. Because these new people were NOT CHRISTIAN, they were ranked below the White. 

Geocentric model (Source: Danang Astronomy Club)

Heliocentrism, Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) (Source: The Earth Observatory)

                                                                                                                                    More example? Did you know that back then, the word mad (or madness) did not mean the same as now? (You can read it here). Back then, 'mad' people were those scientists! The Church excused many of the revolutionary scientists for their 'heresy.' Some of them were Nicolaus Copernicus or Galileo Galilei, with Heliocentrism against the popular Geocentric model at the time. 

When there was no more religion, people started to struggle themselves asking 'WHO AM I'. This is when the concept of a STATE began to dominate the whole world. We need to bear in mind that this also the time when the word 'culture' began to have the meaning as it has right now (interestingly, it has been about 200 years and this meaning hasn't changed anything). When people started to accept the idea of a nation, they had the feeling of belonging to something/a state. Again, just the best timing, it came exactly like when the White took America. People also started to rank all the nations and nationality became so important (***). Result? World War I began!

Poster of Titanic

This time was also called the Revolution of Machine and Technology. Some believed the peak of it was the TITANIC. It was the biggest and most modern ship at the time. It was said to be impossible to sink. That's why when Titanic sank, a lot of scholars considered it to be the end of the Modernization Era. 

I'm not so sure if 2020 is already considered Post-Modernization Era or not. Some people, especially after the rising of AI, already talked about the current time as Advanced-Modernization. Back in the early 2000s, AI was still something so magical, so unrealistic. If you look at the list of AI movies (here), you could see the numbers of AI films have risen since the late 1990s. Now, just look at Siri, talking to you stuff like 'That's so rude' when you say 'F*ck you' to 'her/him.' Well, you have a friend now. A 'magical, unrealistic' friend. 

(*) Some of the sources also refer to 'culture' as being derived from the word 'Kultur' in German

(**) The relationship between Rulers and Temples in Southeast Asian history was quite complicated. Basically, Temples owned the land (more in a spiritual way) but they still could receive part of the products on that land. The Rulers here stood as the servant of the Temples but they ruled the people in that land. However, sometimes, the King even had to approach local leaders through the temple networks as the land, in name, belonged to the Temples. Therefore, on some occasions, the King did find Temples threatening his power and authorities.

(***) Did you notice that before this time, people just went around the world without a passport (or something with the same function)? Back in that time, if Columbus had to pass that many papers like us now, I doubt if he could have mistaken America with India. 

This piece of writing is collected from all my time studying in 'cultural studies'. A lot of it was 'preached' by professor Dervin, professor Koga, professor Rajkai and professor Morishita. (Hopefully) this's gonna be my last paper about the word 'culture'. 

*P/s: whenever I see a term (like state or nation), I just wanna add more like what it means, how to distinguish it with others. But I guess, I will just stop here.