Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His CriticsIn Black Athena Writes Back Martin Bernal responds to the passionate debates set off by the 1987 publication of his book Black Athena. Producing a shock wave of reaction from scholars, Black Athena argued that the development of Greek civilization was heavily influenced by Afroasiatic civilizations. Moreover, Bernal asserted that this knowledge had been deliberately obscured by the rampant racism of nineteenth-century Europeans who could not abide the notion that Greek society—for centuries recognized as the originating culture of Europe—had its origins in Africa and Southwest Asia. The subsequent rancor among classicists over Bernal’s theory and accusations was picked up in the popular media, and his suggestion that Greek culture had its origin in Africa was widely derided. In a report on 60 Minutes, for example, it was suggested that Bernal’s hypothesis was essentially an attempt to provide blacks with self-esteem so that they would feel included in the march of progress. In Black Athena Writes Back Bernal provides additional documentation to back up his thesis, as well as offering persuasive explanations of why traditional scholarship on the subject remains inaccurate and why specific arguments lobbed against his theories are themselves faulty. Black Athena Writes Back requires no prior familiarity with either the Black Athena hypothesis or with the arguments advanced against it. It will be essential reading for those who have been following this long-running debate, as well as for those just discovering this fascinating subject. |
From inside the book
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Page 2
... maintain against the previous orthodoxy that Southwest Asia had a critical impact on important aspects of Greek civilization . Outline of Black Athena : The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Culture HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE PROJECT AS A ...
... maintain against the previous orthodoxy that Southwest Asia had a critical impact on important aspects of Greek civilization . Outline of Black Athena : The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Culture HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE PROJECT AS A ...
Page 7
... maintained that Classical reports of early Egyp- tian and Phoenician settlement and civilizing were the result of connivance among later Egyptian , Phoenician , and Greek priesthoods and were , there- fore , untrustworthy . Furthermore ...
... maintained that Classical reports of early Egyp- tian and Phoenician settlement and civilizing were the result of connivance among later Egyptian , Phoenician , and Greek priesthoods and were , there- fore , untrustworthy . Furthermore ...
Page 8
... maintain that the " externalist " forces described above pro- vided the chief impetus for the shift of models , and the only one for the destruction of the Ancient model , an important " internalist " impulse also lay behind the ...
... maintain that the " externalist " forces described above pro- vided the chief impetus for the shift of models , and the only one for the destruction of the Ancient model , an important " internalist " impulse also lay behind the ...
Page 15
... maintain that in this area " anything goes . " Thus , Lefkowitz's claim ( p . xi ) that my etymology of Athens " is intrinsically no more persua- sive " than Hopkins's Egyptian derivation of Aphrodite is merely reductio ad absurdum ...
... maintain that in this area " anything goes . " Thus , Lefkowitz's claim ( p . xi ) that my etymology of Athens " is intrinsically no more persua- sive " than Hopkins's Egyptian derivation of Aphrodite is merely reductio ad absurdum ...
Page 26
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Contents
Egyptology | 25 |
A Reply to David OConnor | 44 |
Classics | 53 |
A Reply to Emily Vermeule | 76 |
A Reply to Edith Hall | 90 |
Linguistics | 107 |
Historiography | 165 |
A Reply to Guy Rogers | 198 |
Recent Broadening Scholarship | 289 |
Walter Burkerts The Orientalizing Revolution Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age | 308 |
A Review of Martin Wests The East Face of Helicon West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth | 318 |
15 Phoenician Politics and Egyptian Justice in Ancient Greece | 345 |
A Popular Effort | 373 |
Conclusion | 397 |
Notes | 401 |
Glossary | 459 |
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Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics Martin Bernal No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
accept Aegean African Afroasiatic Afrocentric Afrocentrists Anatolia Ancient Egypt Ancient Egyptian Ancient Greece Ancient model archaeological Archaic argued argument Aryan model Astour Baines believe Bernal Black Athena Blok Burkert Canaanite century B.C.E. chapter claim Classical classicists Coptic Crete criticism cult cultural Cyrus Gordon Daidalos derived discussion Dynasty earlier early East Eastern Mediterranean Egyp Egyptian influence Egyptian mathematics Egyptologist European evidence fact Furthermore Greek civilization Grote Hellenistic Herodotus Hesiod historians Homer Hyksos idea Indo-Hittite influences on Greece instance Jasanoff and Nussbaum K. O. Müller language later Lefkowitz Levant Levantine linguistic loans maintain mathematics Mesopotamia Mill Mill's millennium B.C.E. modern Morris Müller Mycenaean myths Neogrammarians Nevertheless nineteenth Oriental origin Palter parallels period Phoenician phonetic Plato plausible political racism reason refer Review Roman scholars semantic Southwest Asia texts tian tion tradition Tritle Ugaritic Vermeule Walter Burkert West Semitic words writing wrote
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Page 14 - For dignity composed, and high exploit: But all was false and hollow ; though his tongue Dropp'd manna, and could make the worse appear The better reason, to perplex and dash Maturest counsels...