I haven’t researched it at all, but off the top of my head, food knowledge feels like one of those things that we don’t appreciate enough. There’s the obvious, which is that European settlers were kept alive for hundreds of years by Indigenous Americans who collaborated with them so they didn’t starve. And then the less obvious, like how some of the most iconic “European” foods are combinations of other cuisines, like pasta and tomato sauce (pasta is just noodles, from China, and tomatoes are indigenous to the Americas). Peppercorn, used in almost all Western cuisines, is from India and Southeast Asia. Tea, a bedrock of English culture and cuisine, is from China. I’m sure there are hundreds of other examples.
Skyhawk wrote a piece called "The Red Roots of White Feminism." I can look up the reference if you can't find it. If I remember right, it would be from the 1970s or 80s.
Thanks for the eclectic selection to a (still) under-researched topic.
At this stage perhaps our biggest problem is that most of those points are each not that controversial anymore within their respective expert circles. There even is a bit of a reaction in that careers can be made laying out contributions by people of color and by especially by women who, however lily white, also had to wait in the foyer when credit was assigned (literally in the case of Lise Meitner).
Still, general introductions and textbooks, even children's books, typically default to the standard couple of pages on Egypt, Sumer, and move on to the familiar geography... A point that the Davids make to great effect.
How about more contemporary periods? Perhaps you know of some Indian scientists and scholars whose contributions were commandeered and assigned to Western writers?
Soviet contributions could and were routinely plagiarized in the West without risk of pushback. There are some examples from psychology and computer science I could try to dig up.
A nitpick to Aristotle: Not that I am an expert "historian of ideas", but Aristotle's is often nicknamed "The systematizer" which probably captures his contributions that go well beyond mere plagiarism and earned him recognition also among the cultures he drew ideas from.
This is actually quite often the case that the scholar from the periphery close to - but not really of - the center of scholarship is the one who has the Chutzpah to attempt a general systematic take (on works derivative from the center). After all, our "inside-outsider" has all that scholarship to catch up on - plus an audience at home to relate it to. Conversely, such a general project would come across as somewhat grandiose to a scholar from the center itself.
There are countless examples in science history for this (tellingly from within the West...): Scots (e.g. Hume) close to but not of the center (London), Austrians and Bohemians ;-) close to but not of the center (Germany), etc. This would fit precisely with the concept of Hellenic Greece as being periphery to central networks located in West Asia and North Africa.
great article. being part acadien and part nova scotian gael, people stealfrom both all the time to sell tourist traps, but the authentic stuff the nova scotia government groans about fundiong all the time despite the authentic cultural events are the major tourist attractions. so in nova scotia we are all officially scottish, but for centuries the actual gaels were excluded from power unless they converted to protestantism and did some major sucking up. when i was a kid you could get you head bashed for speaking a word of gaelic in halifax, now all the bars have caid mille failte over the doors
I haven’t researched it at all, but off the top of my head, food knowledge feels like one of those things that we don’t appreciate enough. There’s the obvious, which is that European settlers were kept alive for hundreds of years by Indigenous Americans who collaborated with them so they didn’t starve. And then the less obvious, like how some of the most iconic “European” foods are combinations of other cuisines, like pasta and tomato sauce (pasta is just noodles, from China, and tomatoes are indigenous to the Americas). Peppercorn, used in almost all Western cuisines, is from India and Southeast Asia. Tea, a bedrock of English culture and cuisine, is from China. I’m sure there are hundreds of other examples.
Skyhawk wrote a piece called "The Red Roots of White Feminism." I can look up the reference if you can't find it. If I remember right, it would be from the 1970s or 80s.
This one? https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/allenredrootsofwhitefeminism.html Nice read.
Thanks for the eclectic selection to a (still) under-researched topic.
At this stage perhaps our biggest problem is that most of those points are each not that controversial anymore within their respective expert circles. There even is a bit of a reaction in that careers can be made laying out contributions by people of color and by especially by women who, however lily white, also had to wait in the foyer when credit was assigned (literally in the case of Lise Meitner).
Still, general introductions and textbooks, even children's books, typically default to the standard couple of pages on Egypt, Sumer, and move on to the familiar geography... A point that the Davids make to great effect.
How about more contemporary periods? Perhaps you know of some Indian scientists and scholars whose contributions were commandeered and assigned to Western writers?
Soviet contributions could and were routinely plagiarized in the West without risk of pushback. There are some examples from psychology and computer science I could try to dig up.
A nitpick to Aristotle: Not that I am an expert "historian of ideas", but Aristotle's is often nicknamed "The systematizer" which probably captures his contributions that go well beyond mere plagiarism and earned him recognition also among the cultures he drew ideas from.
This is actually quite often the case that the scholar from the periphery close to - but not really of - the center of scholarship is the one who has the Chutzpah to attempt a general systematic take (on works derivative from the center). After all, our "inside-outsider" has all that scholarship to catch up on - plus an audience at home to relate it to. Conversely, such a general project would come across as somewhat grandiose to a scholar from the center itself.
There are countless examples in science history for this (tellingly from within the West...): Scots (e.g. Hume) close to but not of the center (London), Austrians and Bohemians ;-) close to but not of the center (Germany), etc. This would fit precisely with the concept of Hellenic Greece as being periphery to central networks located in West Asia and North Africa.
Hmm. I didn't think it was Allen, but it might have been.
great article. being part acadien and part nova scotian gael, people stealfrom both all the time to sell tourist traps, but the authentic stuff the nova scotia government groans about fundiong all the time despite the authentic cultural events are the major tourist attractions. so in nova scotia we are all officially scottish, but for centuries the actual gaels were excluded from power unless they converted to protestantism and did some major sucking up. when i was a kid you could get you head bashed for speaking a word of gaelic in halifax, now all the bars have caid mille failte over the doors