Re: Claude Levy-Strauss - that's a sophisticated, educated reference to make, and I hope you won't think I am a boor for my response. Just got home from a graduate level history class on the history of the Nazis. Social Darwinism and biological determinism are, of course, ideas not solely held by the Nazis, they had, and apparently continue to have great charm among intellectuals of all persuasions. Tonight we learned that one of the variations which were unique to Hitler was the belief that "races," aka Volk, aka nations, have biologically determined destinations in which to expand, and for the Germans, it was East; for the Italians, South, and for the English, West.
I was yanking Jay's chain last week about the tendency of the Turkic peoples of Central Asia to expand South.
There is, as far as I know, no dispute to the claim of the cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa of the Indus valley to be the oldest cities on Earth (not counting Jericho, which isn't what I call a "city" but we're quibbling here) - so, in fact, civilization certainly went east into India, and southeast Asia, maybe into China.
Still, the Chinese would be very surprised to hear anyone claim that Europe was civilized before China.
Or maybe what Levi-Strauss meant by "civilization" was the Industrial Revolution? |
