noncivilised

Noncivilised is an adjective historically used to describe human groups presumed to lack features associated with civilisaton, such as settled urban life, centralized state authority, writing systems, monumental architecture, or complex economies. In ethnography, travel writing, and colonial administration, the term has signaled a boundary between what was labeled civilised and what was labeled noncivilised, often reflecting ethnocentric judgments rather than objective criteria.

In the 18th through early 20th centuries, European scholars, missionaries, and administrators used noncivilised to justify policies of conquest, assimilation, or paternal oversight. The term commonly appeared with other hierarchical labels like savage or barbarian, reinforcing a dichotomy that framed Western societies as superior.

Contemporary scholarship rejects the term as outdated and misleading. Civilisation is contested as a singular, value-laden concept rather than a universal standard. Absence of writing or urban centers does not imply lack of social complexity, culture, technology, or organization. Many nonstate or nonliterate societies have sophisticated governance, trade networks, ritual life, and environmental knowledge.

In modern usage, researchers prefer descriptive or context-specific language: preindustrial, agrarian, stateless, indigenous, traditional, or nonliterate, depending on the situation. When discussing historical contact, analysts describe relations of power, cultural transmission, and adaptation without ranking societies along a civilised–uncivilised axis.

See also: Civilization, Ethnocentrism, Colonialism, Anthropology, Indigenous peoples.