StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Pre-Civilization History - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
In the paper “Pre-Civilization History” the author looks at Edward Said, who invented the notion of a contrapuntal reading of history, meaning that the story of history is told by many different voices, all of which are distinct and at the same time, part of the whole…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97% of users find it useful
Pre-Civilization History
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Pre-Civilization History"

The rules made up by the men are taken for granted to be naturally just the way things are; there is no contrapuntal telling of history in the case of the Bible. So Hagar was given by Sarah to Abraham to create a son for him. There is no indication of any kind of questioning on Sarah's part about the correctness of giving away another woman's body for the sake of her husband being able to pass down his wealth. It was, indeed, Abraham's wealth, not Sarah's, because of women-owned nothing. The story of Abraham and Sarah, however, never indicates even a hint of resentment on Sarah's part.

History has always been written by its victors. Said is trying to change what is, apparently, an innate and natural way for humans to do things. Said wants history to be told that includes diverse voices: the voices of the imperialized and well as the voices of the imperialists, of the slave as well as the slave masters, of women, of all the oppressed. That is what he says. In the meanwhile, he is staunchly anti-Israel and complains that Palestinian voices are not heard. Jews, who are people who were the oppressed for thousands of years in Europe, are now cast in the role of oppressors, and the Palestinians and those who support them are the heroes.

Maybe he is correct, but then he fails to draw the obvious lesson: as soon as those voices which were silenced become loud, as soon as any formerly beaten-down people take power, they then turn around and silence others and beat them down in the same way they were beaten. Nobody is pure. The Israelis are not pure, but neither is the rest of the world, and neither are the Palestinians. Give anyone power, and they become greedy for more. The so-called heroes who escape from oppression don't maintain their ideals for long.

Look at the Puritans who came to the American colonies to escape religious persecution in England. Right away, they enslaved Africans. They forbade non-property owners to vote. They forbade women to vote. Some of the colonies forbade Catholics and Jews to vote. How heroic were theySaid is beating a drum of inclusion and democracy. As a top-rate academic, it is unlikely that he is really ignorant. Therefore, he is not really about liberty, equality, fraternity. He is a Palestinian who is about trying to get power in the world not to be distributed equally but to change the monopolistic hands into which it falls.

Some questions to explore might be: Who would decide how this contrapuntal writing of history he wants would be organized Who would decide what gets included, what gets excluded, which writing gets the biggest space right upfront and what is squeezed into a little column in the back of the book Regarding Said's stated belief that academics should be political and not objectively silent about politics, what would become of those academics who continue to want to teach pure theory and not engage in any flag-waving Would they still keep their jobs Would they have any chance to get promoted in their departments, or would only the loud, politically correct flag-wavers get to sit in the department chairperson's seats

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(Pre-Civilization History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words, n.d.)
Pre-Civilization History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1513268-edward-saids-history
(Pre-Civilization History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
Pre-Civilization History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1513268-edward-saids-history.
“Pre-Civilization History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1513268-edward-saids-history.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Pre-Civilization History

Cultural/Historical Analysis

Cultural/Historical Analysis CRITICAL REVIEW: CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS Samuel P.... Huntington, in his epoch making literary work, ‘The Clash of Civilizations' has reflected that people's culture and religious individualities act as the principal sources of conflicts amidst the post-cold world war era....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

The motion of the Earth around the Sun and the effect of this in respect of temporal orientation

“Eppur si muove…” were the last words of Galilei's, the renowned mathematician from the University of Padova.... However, he was not the first to state the Earth is moving around the Sun.... Aristarkhos, an ancient Greek mathematician, represented also a heliocentric view of the Universe.... … We owe a lot to Galileo Galilei, Tycho de Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton for the acceptance of heliocentric concept....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

The Clash of Civilizations and the Coming of the New World Order

Also, he puts Israel together with the West, thereby combining Jews with Christians, which is strange if we look at history.... I think this point should be noted strongly because it was a post Cold War period in which America suddenly became the sole world superpower and there was a search for new ‘enemy' from… A new ‘challenge' was sought to reflect the changed geopolitical landscape and international relations referred to as the new world order....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Is It Possible to Have a Civilisation without Writing

His point is that without writing, a civilization does not have a means to propagate itself, much less see its survival because oral societies cannot be as knowledgeable, lacking the perennial truth conveyed solely by the He stressed that “writing is among the greatest invention in human history, perhaps the greatest invention, since it made history possible....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Cultural Makeup of Early Civilizations

For instance, a number of groups in the history of Iraq, going back to the period of Mesopotamia, have created autonomous social groups (Fernández-Armesto, 2000).... uestion 4Revisionist history refers to the point of view that enhances the procedure of going back in time so as to try to modify or alter the opinion of history that is presumed to be true to some extent.... In my view, revisionist history contains both pros and cons....
2 Pages (500 words) Assignment

Personal Development and Reflection

Trade is the only factor that made human development become one important factor in the 1750.... Every community in this century relied on trade for survival.... According to Bernier trade between different nations was also… The author further argues that these relationships were also significant in human development....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

The Influence of the Mesopotamia Civilization

Its modern day existence has undergone number of phases (McCannon, 57).... Like any other civilization or society, it was set of individuals who flocked together as an entity.... This was further transformed… Before looking into the overall existence of the civilization, it is highly imperative to look into the kind of atmosphere and Based on this, the given civilization adopts a certain means of occupation, living and survival....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Understanding Primary Source Readings

In the Brockport's SUNNY College he taught Soviet, African and world history for numerous years.... He was also awarded with Chancellor's Awards for his contribution in teaching2. He has served as a… Robert Strayer in various renowned colleges and universities of the present era has delivered lectures on world history in the year 2002 such as Santa Cruz, Robert Strayer scholarly work is primarily based on world history and has also written various books on the same subject....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us