It's All Greek to Me
It's All Greek to Me
The Barbarian in History
This chapter examines how the term “barbarian” is used in Western history, focusing on a series of criteria that have determined what constitutes “civilization” in the West from Greek antiquity to the present. It outlines the complex discursive space of the barbarian in the West by linking its significations and uses in different eras to normative standards that have determined what counts as “civilized.” To that end, the chapter offers a provisional typology of what it calls “civilizational standards.” These include language, culture, morality, religion, gender, race, ethnicity, political system, class, progress, and the psyche. The chapter shows that the history of the barbarian emerges as a narrative of discontinuities, repetitions, and unexpected intersections, rather than a linear succession of significations. Finally, it considers the concepts of “humanity,” “humanism,” and the “human” that have functioned not only as criteria for defining the barbaric but also as the opposites of the barbarian and barbarism.
Keywords: barbarism, barbarian, civilization, Western history, civilizational standards, humanity, humanism, human, barbaric, morality
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