An interesting question about civilizations? ?

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Interesting the way civilized people fairly early on regaded themselves; its well known the Greeks developed an elaborate notion that people who weren’t Greeks were barbarians. Chinese notoriously viewed other peoples both in civilizastions and out as barbarians.

What examples can you think of to support this trend that civilizations tend to think they are so much better and more civilized than other humans?
 
The word "barbarians" was coined by Roman soldiers ~50 BC(E) when they heard the language of the Gauls (What we call France, but very different). The soldiers thought that the sound of their language sounded like the barking of dogs, so they called them "barbar" (barking).
 
EVERY nation/race/creed thinks they're better than every other nation/race/culture etc. Even if they don't like the way their country's run they have a rosy image of their national character.

Panama Joe - 'barbaroi' (sing. barbaros) is a Greek word and is found in Attic writing from the 6th century BC onwards. It was NOT coined by the Romans, but you are completely right that it was used to described the sounds that foreigners made - to the Greek ear, it all sounded like 'baa baa baa'. Interesting though, the Greek word for 'stranger' or 'foreigner' (xenos) is also the word for 'guest' and strangers would expect to be treated as such. 'Barbaroi' is nearly always used for non-Greeks, particularly the Persians, who are often depicted as looking very outlandish.

If you're interested further, try reading Edith Hall's Inventing the Barbarian.
 
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