Showing papers in "Journal of World History in 2000"

Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History

Abstract: Modern historiography has not fully appreciated the ecological complexity of the Silk Roads. As a result, it has failed to under stand their antiquity, or to grasp their full importance in Eurasian his tory. The role played by the Silk Roads in exchanging goods, tech nologies, and ideas between regions of agrarian civilization is well understood. Less well understood is the trans-ecological role of the Silk Roads?the fact that they also exchanged goods and ideas between the pastoralist and agrarian worlds. The second of these systems of exchange, though less well known, predated the more familiar "trans civilizational" exchanges, and was equally integral to the functioning of the entire system. A clear awareness of this system of trans-ecolog ical exchanges should force us to revise our understanding of the age, the significance, and the geography of the Silk Roads. Further, an appreciation of the double role of the Silk Roads affects our understanding of the history of the entire Afro-Eurasian region. The many trans-ecological exchanges mediated by the Silk Roads linked all regions of the Afro-Eurasian landmass, from its agrarian civ ilizations to its many stateless communities of woodland foragers and steppe pastoralists, into a single system of exchanges that is several mil lennia old. As a result, despite its great diversity, the history of Afro Eurasia has always preserved an underlying unity, which was expressed in common technologies, styles, cultures, and religions, even disease patterns. The extent of this unity can best be appreciated by contrast ing the history of Afro-Eurasia with that of pre-Columbian America. World historians are becoming increasingly aware of the underly ing unity of Afro-Eurasian history. Andre Gunder Frank and Barry

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (review)

Abstract: Surprisingly, the Library of Congress has classified Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order as “history,” which it assuredly is not, either in scope or in method. Rather, Huntington’s book belongs in the realm of political science speculation, gussied up with what the author believes to be “history”—or at least numerous references to “history tells us” or “throughout history,” to prove his points. So why is The Clash of Civilizations being reviewed here? Because Huntington makes a big claim about history, and especially about historical continuity—a claim that world historians should be made aware of. Huntington’s thesis is that the bipolarity of the Cold War obscured a fundamental fact about the world and its history: namely, that the largest units of common human identity, difference, action, and conflict have been, and once again are, civilizations, which are drawing together once again the countries and peoples previously divided by Cold War politics. From this premise, Huntington goes on to make foreign policy recommendations for the United States: understand its clear and leading role within Western civilization, bolster those civilizational elements within its own borders, and bond with other states belonging to Western civilization (in particular in Europe up to the borders of the former Soviet Union). Further, the United States should gird itself for conflict with what Huntington sees as the two major challengers to Western civilization—the Chinese (which he labels “Sinic”) and Islamic civilizations. Huntington explicitly hopes that his book will provide policymakers (and others?) with a new paradigm of international relations to replace the “realist” school’s paradigm

The State, War, and the State of War (review)

Abstract: dictive history” runs through the book. In this history, Toiroa, the seer who is believed to have prophesied Te Kooti’s career in 1766, is stated to be still prophesying in 1865. Calling him “old Toiroa” does not solve the problem that he would have been considerably over a hundred (and apparently had a namesake prophesying at the same time). Binney’s lapses of judgment highlight the postmodern aspects of her attempt to speak with too many voices. In trying to keep faith with present-day Ringatu, she equivocates about facts. It is not as a history but as a record of the development of Ringatu belief that this book is important. The New Zealand poet Kendrick Smithyman, reciting a legend in a poem called “Tradition,” speaks of the prophet Papahurihia’s gift to Te Kooti:

Trade and State in the Arabian Seas: A Survey from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century

Abstract: W discussing some themes of my The Arabian Seas 1640–1700 and considering wider implications as well, this essay touches on a number of broad topics, so that if readers are not familiar with the facts they will at least be able to comment on the theoretic casting of this article.2 There are disadvantages, though, to writing in this manner. Some readers will feel that I skim some topics too easily, often because I’m trying to voice broad questions for further research. However—to quote a useful truism—voicing the right question is half the research. But, however beautiful the questions, for the early modern period we often simply do not have the evidence to answer. This particularly applies to figures. If I’m permitted to quote myself on a time and place for which we dispose of reams and reams of statistics: “They are like drugs: you want ever more of them and using them always leaves you dissatisfied.”3 Historians of early modern Asia often have to be creative with the slender evidence they have. With this caveat in mind, let’s start with defining which area con-

Why Is the Twentieth Century the Century of Genocide

Abstract: It has become almost a platitude, a statistical one at that: 187 million is the figure, the now more or less accepted wisdom for the number of human beings killed as a result of political violence?Zbigniew Brzezinski uses the unlovely term megadeaths?in this, our bloody century.1 More killing than at any other time in history. And yet at the end of the twentieth century its relentlessness, as it passes across the television screens of those of us seemingly blessed with immunity from its catastrophic reality and consequences, continues to daze and bewil der. For the historian, him or herself inured to centuries if not millen nia of mass atrocity, this picture of a special era of death and destruc tion invites, indeed demands further probing and analysis. Is "the Twentieth Century Book of the Dead" really so very different in scope or scale from previous ones?2 It has been argued that the effects of the Taiping and other rebellions in China reduced its population from 410 million in 1850 to 350 million in 1873.3 In southern Africa a couple of decades earlier, the emergence of Shaka's Zulu nation and the ensu ing Mfecane or "great crushing" produced equally horrendous results relative to the population of the region. Go back a few centuries and

China, the West, and World History in Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China

Abstract: L before the death of Joseph Needham in 1995 at the age of ninety-four, his Science and Civilisation in China was acclaimed as one of the monumental achievements of twentieth-century scholarship. One reviewer greeted the first volume in 1954 by declaring that Needham’s project represents “perhaps the greatest single act of historical synthesis and intercultural communication ever attempted by one man.”1 When the twenty-eighth and last text in the series comes out sometime in the next ten years, the volumes will provide an encyclopedic survey of Chinese achievements in almost all areas of science and technology—physics, astronomy, metallurgy, chemistry, botany, agriculture, biology, language, geology, ceramics, and sericulture.2

(Re)imag(in)ing Other2ness: A Postmortem for the Postmodern in India

Abstract: of Indian history. First, how can one account for the appearance of postmodernist thought and postcolonial criticism in Indian histori ography? Second, what has been the history of this encounter? And third, how has our understanding of Indian history in the "postcolo nial," the "colonial," or the "precolonial" periods been influenced by these perspectives and critiques? The appearance of postmodernist influences in the writing of Indian history is related to the evolution of the highly influential Sub altern Studies movement, launched in Calcutta in 1982. Scholars contributing to early issues of the movement's publication, Subaltern Studies, were collectively concerned with restoring voice and agency to those classes of India's nonelite "subalterns"?peasants, industrial

The Legal Regime of the South Atlantic World, 1400-1750: Jurisdictional Complexity as Institutional Order

Abstract: What were the boundaries of the early modern world? Answers to t is question rest upon assumptions about the nature of global interconnectedness. World-systems approaches have explicitly marked participation in global production networks as a criterion for inclusion in the world-economy of the sixteenth century, an emphasis that critics have noted leaves Africa and Asia oddly outside its bound aries.1 Highlighting trade is an alternative that leads toward different conclusions?for example, toward a greater emphasis on the impor tance of Asia in the global system.2 Yet as critics of world-systems history noted decades ago, understanding local-global connections through the analysis of trade invites inadequate attention to local con flicts that appear crucial in structuring regional incorporation in global markets.3 The alternatives, however, have always appeared badly

Patrons, Clients, and Empire: The Subordination of Indigenous Hierarchies in Asia and Africa

Abstract: H istorians of empire have frequently referred to models of mutual dependency between rulers and subordinate societies. The terminology of subordination covering “subsidiary alliances,” “paramountcy,” “protectorates,” “indirect rule,” or “collaboration” indicates a need to account for the ways in which imperial hierarchies functioned in the absence of sustained coercion at the interface between “rulers” and “ruled”. The notion of modus vivendi is implicit in this equilibrium, compared with the disequilibrium of conquest. So, too, is the idea of degrees of control and supervision.1 Others who have emphasized the notion of overt and passive resistance to account for political change within the framework of colonial government still have to explain the more usual amount of accommodation.2 Moreover, many of the structures utilized by colonial administrations at the district level have not disappeared. Beneath the rhetoric surrounding “colonialism” and “nationalism” there still lies a broad topic concerning the interaction of imperial agents, their political successors, and local leaders in regional histories, and that can benefit from comparative treatment. The specific topic of this essay is concerned with the ways in which power and authority were exercised through indigenous leaders in a

Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (review)

Abstract: more traditional socialist vision of a more equal distribution of wealth and income. Committed to democracy, he sees the means of achieving these goals in a coalition of environmental, labor, social justice, and feminist movements. But he recognizes that the changes he desires would not just make reforms in the present system; they would transform it. This reviewer missed a serious discussion of the population issue, which surely has an impact on the use and distribution of resources and the depletion of nature. Human population would have to level out to achieve ecological sustainability. But O’Connor has an admirable grasp of most of the major issues. To read this book is to come into contact with a creative and powerful intellect. j. donald hughes University of Denver

Third Worldism or Globalism? Reply to James M. Blaut's Review of The Myth of Continents

Abstract: James M. Blaut (1999) contends that The Myth of Continents (Lewis and Wigen 1997) is not a particularly original work. He is no doubt correct in regard to the parts of the book with which he agrees. As the book's introduction clearly acknowledges, our critique of received metageography builds on the insights of many scholars, including Marshall Hodgson, Jack Goody, and Blaut himself. Nor do we profess to have the last word; our book concludes with an invitation to fur ther dialogue on a subject that we believe has received less explicit consideration than it deserves. Owing to our respect for his own work on these issues, it is an honor to engage Professor Blaut in debate. Owing to our remaining sharp disagreements, we think that the debate may prove to be illuminating. Setting aside the many fundamental issues on which we concur with Blaut, this reply will focus on three areas of disagreement raised by his review: our overall project, our case against Afrocentrism, and the place of political economy in general?and European imperialism in particular?in our map of the world.

The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Criticism in the Age of Global Capitalism (review)

Abstract: Philadelphia who watched the 1988 Olympics in Seoul on satellite. However, I would like to know how these examples differ from the deterritorialization of Chinese culture in the last two centuries. Why is it that most Chinese all over the world retain some feelings of “Chineseness,” despite the fact that their families have lived in New York, Calcutta, Buenos Aires, and other places for generations and differ in cultural background in terms of language, common history, and religion? How did mass media influence their identity, and was it the same in Bombay as it was in New York? This is doubtful. Given these critical remarks, it would be too easy to write Appadurai’s essays off as a postmodernist literary exercise, especially since sociologists around Martin Albrow try to extrapolate from Appadurai’s “scapes.” (See J. Eade, ed., Living in the Global City [New York: Routledge, 1997]; and M. Albrow, The Global Age: State and Society beyond Modernity [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997].) Albrow sees Appadurai’s theory as a stimulus to the sociological imagination for current research. In my mind, it would be even more interesting if Appadurai himself would take up the challenge to do empirical sociohistorial research, using his ideas of “scapes” in order to show “the newness” of various cultural changes within the sphere of globalization and, more important, the empirical value of his theory. This would be a useful exercise indeed, and the results could bring postmodernists’ notions and discussions about globalization beyond what world historian Janet Abu-Lughod has termed “the global babble.” Modernity at Large has become a must for postmodernist students and scholars, and it has the potential to become a must for other scientists as well. gijsbert oonk Erasmus University

The Politics of Criticism: Not Out of Africa and "Black Athena" Revisited

Abstract: Stephen Howe's Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes and Keith Windschut le 's The Killing of History (1998) illustrate that the issues which many scholars find so contentious in Martin Ber nal's Black Athena are still critical elements of the intellectual land scape. They also show?Bernai aside?that the central feature of the discourse is still Afrocentrism, and that the tone of the discourse is still racial. Having said that, Howe and Windschuttle's works demonstrate the possibility and the need to revisit the discourse or discourses in question. So the historian's prerogative is dredged up here in an exam ination of Mary Lefkowitz's Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History (1996), and Lefkowitz and Guy MacLean Roger's edited volume, "Black Athena" Revisited (1996). This, too, is a "revisitation of sorts." Howe's work is one prism for viewing Lefkowitz's celebrated Not Out of Africa. Howe, an "anti-Afrocentrist" by his own definition, is not taken with Lefkowitz's work. The distances which separate him from Lefkowitz, however, are minimized by the historiographie and epistemological issues the two embrace. Both are concerned with who has the right, who is privileged, to participate in the construction of both history and knowledge. If this seems to be an argument only peopled by classicists, Afrocentrists, and their critics, the questions involved in the privileging of certain histories and constructions of knowledge should resonate for world historians when they consider Eric Wolf's title and its implications: Europe and the People Without His

Port Cities and Intruders: The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era (review)

Abstract: method” as the four essays grouped there. Body and sexuality are not separate from theory and method, but part of the debate, and many would argue for the centrality of the female body in itself subverting the Cartesian dichotomy that equated the mind with man, the body with woman. Similarly, extracts from Mack’s Visionary Women are placed in a section termed “Religion,” but Mack’s whole book is an extended discussion of how we might interpret the significance of gender in early modern Quaker texts and in early modern spirituality. Shoemaker and Vincent offer an alternative textbook to the collection Feminism and History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), edited by Joan Scott. Feminist historians may prefer the Scott collection, which offers wider geographical coverage and less editorial interference with texts. Shoemaker and Vincent’s collection and commentary reflect some British historiographical preoccupations with class and gender rather than race and feminism. But then, as the editors point out, in different languages and cultures gender itself can have different meanings, and debates about gender in Britain differ in emphases from those in the United States and Australia. The impact of feminist scholarship on our understanding of the past can usually be guaranteed to lead to lively discussion in classes, for women’s history has raised new questions and challenges for teachers and students alike. Gender and History will serve a useful purpose for those teaching European and American history from 1500. The arguments may well start with the illustration on the cover: the troubling choice of Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, presenting naked women for the viewer’s gaze and fully clothed discoursing men, serves as an immediate reminder that representations of the politics of gender are alive in the present. patricia crawford University of Western Australia

Migration and Ethnicity in Chinese History: Hakkas, Pengmin, and Their Neighbors (review)

Abstract: pathetic to separation while offering little alternative. The shabby treatment of Kurds in Iraq comes to mind. Democratization and federalism have been put forward as solutions to the startling growth in the number of internal conflicts, but Holsti believes that the solution ultimately—if indeed there is one—is that weak states simply must become stronger or that some alternative to the state be devised. He examines in this latter case, at some length, the possible role of the United Nations, where the attitude is still “Westphalian” (to borrow from Voltaire’s Candide) and preoccupied with sovereignty and territorial integrity. He also considers that Western-style democracy may not be practical in some of the situations. Unfortunately, there are no ready answers, and he frankly concludes that “the problem of weak states and the long, nasty, and brutish wars they spawn will be with us for some time” (p. 205). This is an unusually coherent and well-written exposition of a major current problem in world affairs, with a useful appendix on armed conflicts since 1945 and an exhaustive bibliography. Holsti has no ready answer to the problem, but neither has anyone else, and he has at least convincingly documented the dilemma. The book will be useful, both fortunately and regrettably, for some time to come. paul rich University of the Americas