What is meant by uncivilised?

Question

why were slavic/baltic people,non christian,africans,native americans etc etc etc called uncivilised? or barbaric people?

Even people in rural france are still called uncivilised by the parisians? and across the world.

Why is rural/pastoral life considered uncivil?

Answer 1

civilisation is but a relative term! certain norms create behaviour agreeable to a society: generally regulating living terms for groups of people. these norms in turn, decide civilised conduct: in some way, it is sophistication, therefore, it is 'urban'! What is uncivilised in one place, for one society, is civilised for another, possibly! hence the term 'ancient civilisation'! global norms create concensus, which could lead to some "cultures" being universally described as uncivilised, as the question above brings out! (for more detailed study on this, reading some niews of C E M Joad, would be helpful!)

Answer 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilized

Answer 3

uncivilized = non christianized

Answer 4

No indoor plumbing!!

Answer 5

Other people are frequently labeled uncivilized because they represent a style of living we assume we would never choose.  However, this assessment is made from our perspective and reflects more accurately our uncivil nature and willingness to prejudge without insight into either our nature or the nature of those observed.

Civilization is treating every person as value or civilly.

Answer 6

now they have guns which are civilised way people

Answer 7

ignorance, ethnocentric "we are the best" way of viewing the world.

Answer 8

It's the other way around.

People in cities regard themselves as more individualized, with more value choices.

They think they have escaped from chieftain-tribal "savagery" or barbarism, which causes people to regard only their local ways of doing things and their people as 'the world", the pattern for everyone else.

The idea of a civitas or polis or societal association of persons is that it should be a marketplace of value judgments, talents, abilities, goods, hirings, promotions, idea-level leadership attainments and government protection of one's rights.

Clearly such a social city-based group's citizens are better off that those who live in culturally backward, mentally boring rural places full of farmers, superstitions, and lazy.

But if the pretensions of those who run cities are betrayed as in the US at present by government caused inflation, corporate-government-financier-academic-... tyranny over people's rights, then flight from cities is caused and the pretension is not believed in by most people; they know better and seek to escape a broken-down government, its taxes, pressures and stress.

Answer 9

Its all the tribal culture and beliefs. Its uncivil coz they have no manners. Part of their tradition I call it

Answer 10

Because the ones that say that are the uncivilized .

Answer 11

I'm not sure. The South Eastern Native Americans or

sometimes referred to as the woodland tribes were

considered the five civilized tribes. The Cherokee being

one of the five. Considering what happened to them I would

consider the white man of that day uncivilized.

Answer 12

They usually mean 'not housetrained'.

Answer 13

no manners?

Answer 14

Heh, I'm sure you'd find plenty of country folk who consider city life uncivilized as well.

Often, one group will call another uncivilized or barbaric because they're in a struggle with them and they want to demonize their opposition.  Native Americans were barbarians, barely human, so it was perfectly acceptable to take their land by force and kill or enslave their population.  Same with Africans.  Same with Muslims, today and during the Crusades.  It happens with every group in the world.  Your enemy is always evil, barbaric, less than you.  It makes it easier to kill them or steal from them than if you recognized them as on par with you.  It happens with the tiniest Stone Age groups and with nations today.

I guess what happens with the city/country thing is a combination of being in struggle and not knowing what the other is like.  Rural and urban areas have different needs, but are subject to the same laws, which can create problems.  Look at the gun debate, for instance.  City folk more often see guns used in crimes and by gangs.  Country folk see them as necessary for hunting and protection in an uninhabited area (these are gross generalizations).  No matter what the law is, someone's going to be upset.  So each side sneers that the other is uncivilized, stupid, doesn't understand the real world, in order to get the upper hand in a debate.

Answer 15

This is a prejudice held by many people.  It is the belief that if you choose not to use all the technology available to you, you are somehow a lower class person than those who do.  It has been applied to various people down through history, as you note, and is still being applied to people today.  The fact that there are valuable lessons to be learned from a simple life completely escapes most people, so they put other people down.

Answer 16

It is not uncivilized the Russian word id niculturnity or some such and it means uncultured. As in Culture is found in the big cities, with their museums, galleries, coffee cafes, and plays, musicals, etc. The rural rubes are unable to appreciate the finer things in life. QUOTE FROM WORLD WAR I "How are you going to keep them on the farms now they have see g*y Pariee!" Them being the US troops from the farms and ranches of the Mid WEST!!!