Some Thoughts on Typologies of Culture

Abstract

One of the common misconceptions for anyone who thinks about history or about typologies of cultures and civilizations is to think “That never was so it could never have been” or, to put it differently, “It is unknown to me and so it is impossible.” In practical terms, this means that one insignificant—when compared with the general unwritten and written history of humankind—chronological layer that can be studied with the help of well-preserved written sources is taken as the norm for all historical processes, and the culture of that period, as the standard for all human cultures.

Originally published as “Neskol’ko myslei o tipologii kul’tur.” In Iazyki kul’tury i problemy perevodimosti, B. A. Uspenskij (ed.), 3–11. Moscow: Nauka, 1987. The translation here is from Iurii Lotman, Izbrannye stat’i. Vol. 1: Stat’i po semiotike i tipologii kul’tury, 102–109. Tallinn: Aleksandra, 1992.