In terms of current demographic size five major such civilizations can be identified. In this sense, civilizations refer to large, ancient enduring cultural configurations, to the deepest layer of contemporary cultural geology. In the plural, civilizations have been used in philosophies of comparative history and evolution, but it may also be used as a tool of cultural analysis. Civilizations in plural first appeared on a large intellectual scale after World War I, the horrendous slaughters of which shattered the Western ideas of continuous evolution and progress, and of the West as the unique pinnacle of human development. It spread rapidly across European languages in the nineteenth century with European world supremacy and evolutionism, as a European self-designation. As a singular concept it arose in mid-eighteenth century, distinguishing a high degree of social and cultural development from “barbarism” and “savagery”. Civilization(s) is a concept with different meanings in singular and in plural, belonging to different semantic fields, at least in European languages. The nations sustaining contemporary states are very different, and major routes of historical nation-state formation can be distinguished, which means that global discussions of nation-states cannot be confined to such states “in a European sense” only. Nation-states are inherently part of cultural formations, sustaining, legitimating, and inspiring them.
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