Assignement B Flashcards
How did the Ancient Greeks and Romans influence our today’s society? How does it differ from today?
They influenced almost every part of today’s world, such as government, language (European languages came from Indo-European), and architecture, as well as making scientific advancements.
The institutions (like laws, gave Europe her first “legislative habits’) were taken as a base for the ones we have now, or even we still use some they created. There was a sort of democracy, but very different from now. The right of vote for example, was only given to men who were born in the polis, while women (which just were seen as objects to perpetuate the race) and slaves couldn’t do it. Between the city states (the state is governing today) they promote peace so there weren’t wars.
Their values obviously weren’t the same as today and they were based on wars. The Greeks as they encountered new civilizations, they impose their culture without learning nothing about them, this was like a sort of Imperialism. Meanwhile the Romans did learn (or appropriate) about the civilizations they conquered. Today, instead as our ancient fellows did, we learn not impose or erase.
Tyranny = not kingdom, the governor looks for his own interest while the kingdom does it for the general one.
How did the Ancient Greeks and Romans identify? Concept of Europe at that time?
They both had a feeling of belonging to their micro community. The Greek civilisation considered themselves as superiors and everything outside their territories was considered as barbarian. The Roman Empire was based on a principle of universal rule that had no territorial limits, defined by the limits of its political system and a vast social, cultural, and economic world. The lines on a map which we today call borders did not exist. The Roman civilization was based on a culture that was based on the reworking of those cultures it encountered, Greek. They called themselves “Latins”.
The idea of Europe had little meaning for the Ancients. Therefore, it wasn’t a real concept of Europe at the time, but they had a concept of community. They defined themselves as “not in Asia” or “not being the other”. Africa and Asia defined themselves as because Europe imposed that to them when they came in contact. The fall of Roman Empire -> caused somehow the creation of East and West. In addition to all this, Alex the Great used religion to unify communities.
What did they try to say through the Europa myth on a practical and theoretical level? Territory?
Europe and Asia may have been nautical terms for a seafaring people -> to identify east and west. The myth was simply a metaphor of reality -> representation of hate between continents.
->Creation of own identity
When did we start to have an idea of antiquity as base of European identity?
The main example we have is the Renaissance art of the 14th / 15th centuries in Italy and France which clearly took the Ancient Rome and Greece as an inspiration -> thanks to this Europe was more united. Therefore, we can say, Antiquity and today’s Europe are linked. In addition, Christianity and Islam in the battle of Poitiers, where they differentiated themselves by saying “we are European”
What is religious Othering?
Marking of Religious identity
- Establishing some characteristics
- Defining its own identity by defining “what we are not”
- Common Threats
- Stereotypes -> prejudicial
- Internal Othering (When people do othering in a community, it can create schisms ->
example with the Christian against homosexuals)
What’s religious identity?
“labeling”
Sense of belonging -> unify
Religion -> main aspect of the individual identity
How and Why does religious othering occur?
- inferiority complex
- Superiority complex
- Scapegoat -> Religious communities blamed as an excuse
- Creating propaganda
- The superiority/inferiority complex depended/depends on the historical
context(Example:Renaissance -> Americans) - Positive effects in commercial aspect ( Ottomans good relation with the Nederland)
- Military Aspect : Crusades(Beggars -> pardoned by the church if they participated) ;
gain territory -> othering to gain superiority
How does propaganda ( Art/ Architecture ) affect religious othering?
Vienna malta -> Trampled Turks
- Widespread message
- More Stereotypes -> lasting image -> “fuel to the fire”
- Crescent -> Middle East symbol
- Generalisation&Globalisation -> having a commun image for a large group
- Homeland “incident”
- Architecture commun points but still othering
- Intentional othering (Racial for example) Vs. Unintentional othering
- Normalisation of othering in media
What is Orientalism?
- Theory developed by Europeans who claim to know the Orient (subjective view taken as an objective truth)
- Justification: Egypt was growing (economically) under British rule therefore British ruling was beneficial for Egypt
- Europe in a position of strength “at its prime”/ Orient was weak
- Orientals: people from Asia & the East (geographical explanation)
- Cultural & racial differences
- Often stereotyped –> exaggeration of differences
- Subject race/ people
- Orientalism is a movement
- Difference West/ East –> developed/ developing countries
How did Orientalism develop?
- Development of knowledge (Orientalism became an object of studies)
- Foreign occupation –> in touch with foreign culture; started to study their culture
How Europeans perceived Orientals
- Perception of Algerians by the French (aggressive, barbarian, savage)
- Stereotypical inaccurate of the Orient lead to superiority feeling of the West because of the: downfall of the Ottoman Empire, Napoleon taking over territories especially Egypt (taking art/ learning the history)
- Europe dominates because Europe has more knowledge of the Orient contrary to the Orient who has limited/ little knowledge about Europe
- Orientals were perceived as ‘inert objects’
- Egyptian nationalism: wrong (according to the colonizers) had to have a more cosmopolitan view
How Orientals perceived Europeans
- Algerians saw the French as oppressors
- Orientals didn’t have a say (Europeans were
- Orientals “didn’t know what was good for them” loss the use of logic, loss of identity due to colonization and acculturation (Fanon Reading)
- Being lazy/ aggressive as a response to being oppressed, so the oppressor didn’t thrive lead to a wrong image about the colonized
How did Orientalism influence art and literature & CULTURE?
- Superiority complex grew
- Oriental Renaissance: Europeans got interested in Oriental culture
- Napoleon used oriental (Egyptian) art as propaganda
- Nationalism that covers discontent
- Modernist poetry (exoticism)
- Aesthetic was copied (Delaourx painting)
How were the subjugated people affected by imperialism?
• Suffer severe PTSD from the war
• Loss of autonomy and self-governance / self-confidence
• De-personification
• Loss of culture
• Exploitation of resources (Loss of resources)/ work forces
• Imposing European culture/ imposing new ways of developing
o Incorrect Bias at the basis of Orientalism/ colonizing project: Europeans knew how to develop so the rest of the world had to develop the same way that Europe did
consequences still visible today
• Technological development
• European occupation led to nationalist movements creation of Nation-States (Criticism: not created by the people but by the Berlin Conference)
• Different religions brought by Europeans that still create conflicts today
• Were considered ungrateful if they rebelled
• Algerians: Violence to be free
• Literature: “Absurdity” and “Magical Realism” in South America
What is Remembrance/ Lieu de mémoire?
Memorial space = significant entity that has become a symbolic element of memorial heritage of a community = place / object / concept with historical meaning for a community!
not only objects of knowledge => sources of emotion.
Traces of the past take on a new meaning when they become Memory => alive when reaches the citizen
