E nduring W estern C ivilization The Construction of the Concept of Western Civilization and Its “Others” Edited by Silvia Federici ENDURING WESTERN CIVILIZATION The Construction of the Concept of Western Civilization and "Its Others" Edited by SILVIA FEDERICI Westport, Connecticut London Copyright Acknowledgments Chapter 3, “True West: The Changing Idea of the West from the 1880s to the 1920s," by Chris GoGwilt, revised from the “Epilogue" to The Invention of the West: Joseph Conrad and the Double-Mapping of Europe and Empire by Chris GoGwilt (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995) is used with the permission of the publishers, Stanford University Press. © 1995 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Material from Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History, vol. V (London: Oxford University Press. 1939) is reprinted with permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Enduring Western civilization : the construction of the concept of Western civilization and its “others" / edited by Silvia Federici. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-275-95154-5 (alk. paper). — ISBN 0-275-95400-5 (pbk.) 1. Civilization, Western. 2. Civilization, Western— Historiography. I. Federici. Silvia. CB245.E54 1995 909'.09812—dc20 95-7985 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 1995 by Silvia Federici All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-7985 ISBN: 0-275-95154-5 0-275-95400-5 (pbk.) First published in 1995 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). In order to keep this title in print and available to the academic community, this edition was produced using digital reprint technology in a relatively short pnnt run. This would not have been attainable using traditional mfethods. Although the cover has been changed from its original appearance, the text remains the same and all materials and methods used still conform to the highest book-making standards. Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix Part I. A Genealogy of "Western Civilization" 1 1. Greece: Aryan or Mediterranean? Two Contending Historiographical Models 3 Martin Bernal 2. On the Scottish Origin of "Civilization" 13 George C. Caffentzis 3. True West: The Changing Idea of the West from the 1880s to the 1920s 37 Chris GoGwilt 4. The God That Never Failed: The Origins and Crises of Western Civilization 63 Silvia Federici Satirical Appendix: Oedipus and the Coup 91 Sol Yurick VI Contents Part IL One or Many Civilizations? 117 5. Mathematics and Eurocentrism 119 George Gheverghese Joseph 6. Orientalism, Political Economy, and the Canonization of Indian Civilization 137 JohnRoosa 7. African Languages and European Linguistic Imperialism 161 Alamin Mazrui 8 . They Came Before the Egyptians: Linguistic Evidence for the African Roots of Semitic Languages 175 Nicholas Faraclas Index 197 About the Contributors 209 Acknowledgments Many people have contributed to make this book possible. Among than I want to thank in particular George C. Caffentzjs, Les Levidow, Gabriella Federici, Dina Valli, Peter Linebangh, Linda Longmire, Dan Coughlin, Sohnia Sayres, Russ Harrison, Ariel Salleh, Rip Bulkeley, Mario Fenyo, Sam E. Anderson, Arthur Powell, Marylin Frankestein, Monty Neil, John Wiltshire, Peter Fraser, Kay Williamson, Robin Horton, Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Iain Boat, and Nancy Kelley. Special thanks go to Nancy Lucas, who has helped me prepare the manuscript for publication; Sharon Ross, Coordinator of the Hofstra Academic Computer Lab; and to Dr. James Sabin and Elisabetta Linton of Greenwood Publishers. Introduction Scarcely a day goes by without our reading or hearing of "our inherited cultural tradition," the "typical values of western civilization," "the idea of European coherence" —or, more simply, "our western traditon," "our western values," "our western culture." No set of ideas has become more commonplace, none been more assiduously drummed into our ears. It is noteworthy that [the unity of "western European culture"] has emerged as a dogmatic assertion precisely at the moment when . the interpretation of history upon which it is based has been shattered by historical criticism and discarded by historical scholarship; and it is perhaps still more noteworthy that the weakening and undermining by professional historians of the historical premises underlying this theory has failed to detract from its effectiveness as a political dogma. (Barraclough, 1955: 31-32) We are thus before a moral and political dilemma of no mean proportions when we talk about the relevance of the concept of civilization to our current problems in the late twentieth century. It will not do to try to hide the dilemma by abandoning the concept and avoiding the difficult analysis. Rather, let us embrace it as the central issue of our time. (Wallerstein, 1991a: 224) What do we mean by "Western Civilization"? Today, this question is more important than ever, considering the prominent role that in recent times the notion of Western Civilization has played in academic and political debates. Throughout the 1980s, "Western Civilization" was at the center of the contro­ versies that accompanied the demand for multicultural education and peda­ gogical reform in American colleges (Partisan Review, 1991; Pratt, 1992). More recently, in the broader political arena, we have witnessed the revival of ideologies that portray world politics as dominated by a "clash of civilizations," as in the scenario proposed by Samuel Huntington in a number of widely publicized articles (Huntington, 1993a, 1993b; Melloan, 1993). There is also a widespread perception that "Western Civilization" is undergoing a historic crisis, and indeed all the trendiest philosophical schools—postmodernism, X Introduction feminist theory, afrocentrism, deconstruction—have defined themselves as alternatives to, or critiques of, "Western Civilization." Yet, it is evident that no more clarity presently exists concerning the meaning of this concept than at the time Barraclough was commenting on the sudden popularity of the term (Barraclough, 1955). For despite the prestige currently enjoyed by postmodern theories, which stress the constructed character of all meaning, little effort has been made, by defenders and critics alike, to investigate the content of this concept Much work has been devoted to demonstrating that the teaching of the "Classics of the Western tradition" does not meet the pedagogical needs of a multiethnic population of students, whose cultural backgrounds and concerns are unrepresented in a Eurocentric curric­ ulum. It has also been objected that Western Civilization cannot provide the perspective from which world history is conceptualized, for such a move perpetrates the belief in the cultural superiority of Europe. Few, however, have asked how the concept of Western Civilization has been constructed, what historical status it can claim, or have suggested that Western Civilization is a fiction. More than that, in taking an oppositional stand against "Western values," the new cultural vanguards have contributed to naturalize "Western Civilization," so that the concept is now increasingly used as a self-explanatory term, a term of absolute reference, and above all a neutral term. There are good reasons, however, to challenge this trend. The most immediate reason is that the language of "Western Civilization" creates a shadow play whereby real processes are mystified in a way that precludes transformative action, as has often happened during the recent debates. Cer­ tainly, the fact that the "Western Civilization" canon was made the central question in the discussion of pedagogical reform has increased our awareness of the pedagogical needs of our ethnically diversified student population (Butler and Walter, 1991; Gates, 1992; Gless and Hermstein Smith, 1992; Olguin, 1991). But it has also fostered the illusion that pedagogical reform can be conceived as a shift in cultural paradigms. Moreover, it has detracted attention from more substantive issues such as the ever diminishing support given by government to education, and the perils posed to academic freedom by the military's penetration of academic life and by the subordination of education to narrowly defined economic goals. The "Western Civilization debate" has also perpetrated the myth of a Westem/non-Western cultural divide, thus giving some intellectual credibility to a politics of cultural blocs that is particularly dangerous in the present conjuncture. For hardly had the Berlin Wall fallen and the debate on the "end of history" gotten under way than the flag of "Western Civilization" was raised again in conservative political circles, to evoke the specter of a coming world dominated by cultural conflicts, where "the West" will be naturally pitted against "the Rest," and cultural differentiation will inevitably be a source of lethal division among humankind (Huntington, 1993a, 1993b). Introduction xi Last but not least, an unquestioning, naturalizing approach to "Western Civilization" precludes both an understanding of the reasons for its enduring currency and a proper evaluation