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Myths of Origin: Europe and the Aryan Homeland Quest

Edwin Bryant

in The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate

The Indigenous Aryan debate can only be understood in the context of the history of the greater Indo-European homeland quest in Europe. The purpose of this chapter is to outline the most prominent ... More

The Indigenous Aryan debate can only be understood in the context of the history of the greater Indo-European homeland quest in Europe. The purpose of this chapter is to outline the most prominent features of this history that are most directly connected with the problems of Indo-Aryan origins. Indigenous Aryanists are almost universally suspicious of the motives surrounding the manner in which evidence was interpreted and construed by British and European scholars in the colonial period. It is important to excavate clearly the various biases that influenced the epistemes of the time before attempting to consider the evidence itself, so this chapter addresses some of the more blatant ideological and religious attitudes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the West that co-opted Aryan discourse in some form or fashion. Since there have been a number of studies focused on the general history of Indo-European Studies, it focuses on the aspects of this history that are of particular relevance to the Indian side of the family.Less

Chapter One

George Steiner

in Antigones

Various Europeans scholars, poets, and philosophers who lived during the period between 1790 and 1905 would all agree that, aside from how Sophocles' Antigone was the best of Greek tragedies, this ... More

Various Europeans scholars, poets, and philosophers who lived during the period between 1790 and 1905 would all agree that, aside from how Sophocles' Antigone was the best of Greek tragedies, this tragedy is the closest to perfection than any other work of art created by the human spirit can get. As Athens during the 5th-century facilitated the emergence of thoughts and discussions about the pre-eminence of man, his genius was recognized in terms of poetic, philosophic, and political matters. Ideas from Romantic movements, German Idealism, and the historiography of Freud and Marx's mythography, and other such concerns were given focus in Athens. This chapter discusses how Sophocles was able to gain superiority over other Greek tragedians in his expressions of ideas regarding Idealist and Romantic concepts.Less

From Sephardi to Oriental: The ‘Decline’ Theory of Jewish Civilization in the Middle East and North Africa

Daniel Schroeter

in Jewish Contribution to Civilization

This chapter reveals that the 'orientalism' of European Jewish scholars was more than one dimensional. It discusses Western Jewish historians from Heinrich Graetz to Shlomo Dov Goitein who typically ... More

This chapter reveals that the 'orientalism' of European Jewish scholars was more than one dimensional. It discusses Western Jewish historians from Heinrich Graetz to Shlomo Dov Goitein who typically cast Islam as more tolerant and more enlightened than Christianity, facilitating the unique Judaeo-Arabic cultural symbiosis that nourished the 'golden age' of Spanish Jewry. It also recounts the wake of the Spanish Jewish expulsion in 1492, when oriental Jewry embarked upon a cultural decline. The chapter investigates this 'rise and decline' model of Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewry while revealing questions about the Eurocentric character of the 'contribution discourse'. It reviews the biological argument on the ideal Sephardi type that was adopted to counter antisemitic charges of Jewish degeneracy.Less

Dinner with Cleopatra

Wafaa EL Sadik and Rüdiger Heimlich

in Protecting Pharaoh's Treasures: My Life in Egyptology

This chapter focuses on the author's assignment to oversee Austrian archaeologist Karl Kromer's spring campaign on the Gebel Qibli, the south hill of the Giza plateau. Roughly 3 kilometers south of ... More

This chapter focuses on the author's assignment to oversee Austrian archaeologist Karl Kromer's spring campaign on the Gebel Qibli, the south hill of the Giza plateau. Roughly 3 kilometers south of the Great Pyramid, his mission from the University of Innsbruck was to search for traces of early, predynastic settlement. The author then describes her dealings with foreign colleagues and considers the modern divide between Egyptian and European scholars. The chapter also looks at Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the year 1922. In the same year, Egypt achieved its independence and a new era began for Egyptians in terms of politics.Less

The World Conference of Jains

L.M. Singhvi

Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Lokendra Malik (eds)

in India's Vibgyor Man: Selected Writings and Speeches of L.M. Singhvi

Jainism is quintessentially a world religion, not because it has the strength of numbers in the form of a massive worldwide following but because its core philosophy transcends all ethnic, ritual, ... More

Jainism is quintessentially a world religion, not because it has the strength of numbers in the form of a massive worldwide following but because its core philosophy transcends all ethnic, ritual, and national frontiers and articulates the rational, compassionate, global, and humanitarian ethos of our times. In that sense, as per Dr Singhvi, it is a tradition which is as old as the earliest primordial reflections in the history of human civilization and is at the same time as new as the perennial tomorrow and the day-after-tomorrow.Less