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contexts.The emphasis is on revealing the complex ways and artifacts that cannot be labeled political, social, or
in which human beings come to terms with the condi- economic. On other occasions it has signified the pres-
tions of existence that shape their lives. ence of broad patterns of interactions between human
collectives, with little clarification on what was “cultural”
Culture and Other World about these interactions. For these reasons, a number of
Historical Traditions questions remain for world historians. Is the concept of
The study of culture in world history will undoubtedly culture even appropriate for universal histories, with
gradually extend to societies outside Europe that have their broad sweep and general focus? Do world histori-
developed their own rich understandings of the human ans need to develop another term? What distinguishes
condition. Orally and textually preserved worldviews the concept of culture from, for example, the concept of
from non-Western societies around the world have society?
focused on such subjects as civilizations, jurisprudence, Questionable too is the continued anchoring of culture
trade, science, philosophy, politics, theology, literature, to continental and area-studies schemes of world geog-
and geography. Hindu and Buddhist cosmographies, for raphy. More recently there have been attempts to revise
example, constructed their own world systems based on these metageographical schemes and construct regions
multiple realms of heavens, hells, and various kinds of that are more representative of the cultures they claim to
beings that interacted with human beings. Royal histori- represent. Ultimately, the question of culture will depend
ans, travelers, intellectuals, and common folk from on where one wants to locate the world in world history
around the world have spoken and written on topics that —at the level of the global, in the manifestation of broad
reflected their own understandings of culture, power, and interactions and processes, or at the level of the local.
history. For instance, the fourteenth-century Islamic Either way, world historians writing in the twenty-first
scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) observed in his uni- century will increasingly strive to deploy a concept of cul-
versal history, the Muqaddimah, that the study of human ture (or its associated terms) that attempts to represent
social organization formed an essential part of the sci- both the particular and the general as they write about
entific study of civilization. While such works might be the connections that have bound human beings to one
termed ahistorical by the standards of modern historical another and to their environments for millennia across
scholarship, there is an increasing awareness that such this diverse planet. Culture continues to be relevant to
accounts need to be explained on their own terms, sep- world history, and world historians are beginning to
arate from Western traditions of historical analysis. engage the term with increasing rigor.

Bernardo Michael
The Future of Culture
in World History See also Anthropology; Ethnocentrism
Culture has been variously defined in relation to com-
munities, societies, states, nations, empires, and civiliza-
tions and world systems. The descriptions of culture Further Reading
have ranged from the simple to the complex.While it is Amin, S. (1973). Unequal development:An essay on the social formations
generally recognized that culture finds its best expression of peripheral capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of global-
in detailed local and regional histories, there has been lit- ization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
tle discussion about the use of the term at the level of Arrighi, G. (1994). The long twentieth century: Money, power, and the ori-
gins of our times. London: Verso.
global or planetary studies. Even today, many world his-
Bentley, J. H. (1993). Old World encounters: Cross-cultural contacts and
tories treat culture as a residual field of human activities exchanges in pre-modern times. New York: Oxford University Press.