Talk:Ecumene

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[edit] Merge proposal

I propose to merge "Ecumene" and "Oecumene".

Ecumene is Oecumene's derivatives.

Please see this article's notes.--210.139.175.139 (talk) 10:43, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

I also propose to extend the definition as a geographical term proposed by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel, and then heavily used in statistics.--210.139.175.139 (talk) 11:14, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Oikoumene in cultural history

How does the use of this term in Mumford and McNeill relate to Alfred L. Kroeber's "The ancient oikoumene as an historic culture aggregate", delivered in 1945 as the annual Huxley Memorial Lecture? Being an influential anthropologist, his definition could well have exerted a considerable influence in the field of cultural history. An example of this is Marshall Hodgson, who makes explicit reference to Kroeber in his own adaption of the term:

I have chosen the term 'Oikoumene', in a sense similar to that latterly used by Alfred Kroeber, not just as an area term but to refer to the Afro-Eurasian agrarian historical complex as having a distinctive interregional articulation in an ever-growing area; there seems to be no other term for this complex at all.

– Marshall Hodgson, The venture of Islam (University of Chicago Press, 1974), vol. I, p. 50

I'm not familiar with Kroeber's original definition myself, but judging from the article and this passage from Hodgson, it must differ significantly from McNeill's conception of ouikoumene (and possibly from Mumford's as well). Can anyone help us out with this? --83.249.242.114 (talk) 12:55, 8 June 2008 (UTC)