Cultural difference was routinely misread as a difference in civility.
Evidence
Two key contrasts are at play: the broad opposition ‘civil-ized’ v. ‘natural’ but also the narrower ‘civil-ized’ v. ‘savage.’ Charles Taylor explains in Modern Social Imaginaries that cultural diHference was commonly mistaken for a diHference in civility between those who “have” it and those who “don’t.” — , Stephanie B. Martens - Civilization and…, 61
Categorization
- XREF: Directly supports the reading purpose on how a community imagines its own cohesion through civility, contrasted with threat-based solidarity; also evokes Gilroy’s conviviality as an alterative. — connects to: People mistake their culturally tinted worldview for objective reality. — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice: How to Communicate…, 155; Modern racism legitimizes itself through cultural difference rather than biological hierarchy.; Cultures historically conflated ignorance of local custom with stupidity (+2 more)
- DEFINE: Clarifies the civility/nature distinction operating in Hobbes and his readers.
Related
- Cultural difference has replaced race as the basis for new racisms (similarity 0.82)
- A society’s civility has a racial and perceptual character distinct from its specific civilities. (similarity 0.81)
- Cultures historically conflated ignorance of local custom with stupidity (similarity 0.80)
- Acknowledging cultural difference can compound rather than resolve essentialism by implying boundedness (similarity 0.80)
- Emphasizing essential cultural difference feeds the clash-of-civilizations frame (similarity 0.79)
- Civilizational and racial nativism differ in whether they define enemies or essence. (similarity 0.79)
- Early European claims to civility rested on a culture-versus-nature frame, not cultural difference. (similarity 0.79)
- Culture divides and discriminates before it ever unites a community. (similarity 0.78)
- Cultural history is the struggle between similarity and difference. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Cultures historically conflated ignorance of local custom with stupidity
#exemplifies(0.95) - People mistake their culturally tinted worldview for objective reality.
#expands(0.85) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 155 - Modern racism legitimizes itself through cultural difference rather than biological hierarchy.
#complicates(0.80) - Cultural difference has replaced race as the basis for new racisms
#complicates(0.78) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 866 - Emphasizing essential cultural difference feeds the clash-of-civilizations frame
#expands(0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 256