This is my working hypothesis for my current chapter:  because “pacification” preceded “civilization,” we should look to Europeans’ encounter with “the New World” to explain the emergence of the idea of civilization in both main senses of the term: as a noun to describe a process, and as a noun to describe a society. Keep in mind that “civilization,” when it enters the English language, comes in as a noun to describe a process, in a way that parallels the use of the earlier term “pacification,” which we encounter in both Spanish and English in the mid-15th century.  However, we Read more