Civilisation et Kultur : de Friedrich August Wolf à Sigmund Freud

• Main Author: Claude Calame
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Anthropologie et Histoire des Mondes Antiques 2018-03-01
• Series: Cahiers Mondes Anciens
• Subjects: civilization; Kultur; « Great Divide »; social production of the individual; anthropopoiesis
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/mondesanciens/2063

When he outlines the fundamental principles of Alterthumswissenschaft, F. A. Wolf distinguishes between « die bürgerliche Policirung » of eastern Nations, and « die Geisteskultur » of Greeks and Romans. Other anthropological (E. B. Tylor) or sociological (E. Durkheim et M. Mauss) definitions of the notions of culture and civilization prevent us from creating a hierarchy of cultures. The vision of civilization developed by Freud, establishes a relationship between the individual, his psychic individuality and a society deeply engaged in its own culture. In an anthropological perspective, the idea of the social making of men in relation to their background leads us to take another look at Durkheim, Mauss and Freud’s definitions of civilization, without favouring Greek and Roman culture.