The civilizational method of studying history is one of the most widespread in modern science. Starting with A. Toynbee, who believed that the study of civilizations is an "intelligible field of historical research", this method was used to describe civilizations. Moreover, it should be noted that this applied to the analysis of already established civilizations. The novelty of the study is that the author uses this method to understand the phenomena associated with the formation of a new civilization that unites the countries of Southeast Asia (SE). It examines the issues of civilizational formation, the relationship of this process with globalization, as well as obstacles to the formation of regional identity. The research is in line with the most important directions developed by the Institutes of the History and Philology Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
This problem is also relevant for Russia, where today the task of strengthening the all-Russian identity within a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional country is acute.
Before moving on to the main content, you should determine your understanding of the very concept of civilization. If we accept that a civilization is a community connected together by a set of basic meanings and united by a political or religious idea, then the justification of the civilization of Southeast Asia requires only evidence. If by civilization we mean a certain level of material and spiritual culture and social development, then we mean others, respectively. If the concept of civilization is based on elements of unconscious sympathy (reciprocity) and altruism of interacting communities, then - third.
Such a variety of scientific ideas about the term "civilization" itself greatly complicates the study of the issue, because we are faced with the use of the same concept in different and sometimes poorly comparable contexts. I have tried to adhere to the first of the above-mentioned definitions of civilization, because it see ...
Read more