Culture, Civilization or Religion: The Clash of What?

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to identify the relationships among culture, civilization and religion, based on the Huntington and Philips's Clash of Civilizations. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to know the foundations of these cultures, the differences among them as well as understanding them correctly. The approach implemented in this paper is generally based on the synthesis and interdisciplinary, approaching the topic from several angles and viewpoints of different theories. The purpose of this article is to present opinions on this matter, to compare and to reach a conclusion about the differences and similarities between the concept of the clash of civilizations and cultures. This concurrent political theory war has tended to regard the identities of religion, culture, race and ethnicity as part of the old world and that these constructs have an irrelevant functioning shaping the world order in modern times. Huntington, in the Clash of Civilizations and the Remarking of the World Order analyzes the contemporary conflicts, implementing that the clash of civilizations will create material for all conflict to follow. Philips, in the Clash of Civilization: An Islamic View begins his argument by looking at the importance to understand Islam from a cultural point of view because the basis of much of the current turmoil within Muslim countries and conflict with their neighbors can be attributed to cultural clashes.

Keywords: Culture, civilization, religion, the others.