Is there an agreed upon standard to classify groups of people as 'civilized' as opposed to 'barbarian' (or whatever the term is)? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

Is there an agreed upon standard to classify groups of people as 'civilized' as opposed to 'barbarian' (or whatever the term is)?

by BlackendLight

I'm wondering if there is an agreed upon standard for classifying societies civilized (ex. what types of technologies, cultural standards, etc. would make a group of people civilized).

CommodoreCoCo

There is not. Such concepts have gone the way of phlogiston. 150 years ago, the (well meaning) grandfathers of anthropology had systems with such categories, but the mature field has found these systems meaningless.