WESTERN CIVILIZATION I

Prof. David Swartz

Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose“In the past men were handsome and great (now they are children and dwarfs), but this is merely the one of the many facts that demonstrate the disaster of an aging world. The young no longer want to study anything, learning is in decline, the whole world walks on its head, blind men lead others equally blind and cause them to plunge into the abyss, birds leave the nest before they can fly, the jackass plays the lyre, oxen dance. Mary no longer loves the contemplative life and Martha no longer loves the active life, Leah is sterile, Rachel has a carnal eye, Cato visits brothels, Lucretius becomes a woman. Everything is on the wrong path. In those days, thank God, I acquired from my master the desire to learn and a sense of the straight way, which remains even when the path is tortuous.”

pre = before

pregame predictprevent

post = after

postscript

postponepostdate

ÖTZI THE ICEMAN AND THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS

Week One

Ötzi the Iceman

Ötzi’s demise

Frozen corpse of a Stone Age man discovered in the Alps

Died from a arrow shot while fleeing

“A Life in Ice”

Mono = one

monacle monopoly monochromatic

poly = many

Antidisestablishmentarianism

polygon polychromatic

polysyllabic

uni = one

unicellular

unicycle

unicorn

I. The Emergence of Culture

Ötzi: a transitional figure representing the trajectory from Stone Age culture to civilizations

Stone-Age Culture Not just about survival Ways of living built up by a group and

passed on from generation to generation Abstract, symbolic thought

Tassili-n-Ajjer

I. The Emergence of Culture

I. The Emergence of Culture

I. The Emergence of Culture

A. Sedentary Life Fixed dwelling

places Domestication of

plants and animals

Population growth

I. The Emergence of Culture

B. Religion Ritual Formal religious cults

replace bonds of kinship

Worship of fertility goddesses

I. The Emergence of Culture

Aztec goddess Bali goddess

II. The Emergence of Civilization Civilization: a

form of culture in which many people live in urban centers, have mastered the art of smelting metals, and have developed a method of writing

MesopotamiaA “fertile crescent”

between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

II. The Emergence of Civilization

A. Ramparts of Uruk

Forced into cooperation

Population quadruples to 40,000

Rigid social structures of urban life

II. The Emergence of CivilizationB. Tools

1. New tools: especially the harder alloy of bronze

2. Pictograms: innovation of writing the greatest of all

3. Cuneiform: conceptual; multiple meanings; served to stratify society

II. The Emergence of CivilizationC. Gods and

mortals1. Divinities

Numerous impersonal gods, each with a responsibility

2. Temples and rituals

Sacrifice Mortality

Ziggurat of Uruk made of mud bricks

co/com = with/together

committee combine cohesive

contra/counter = against

counterfeitcontraception contrast

sub = under/below

subway submarine

subdivision

II. The Emergence of Civilization

D. Mesopotamian Expansion1. Akkadian Empire:

King Sargon, tolerance, and decline

2. Babylonian Empire: Hammurabi, codification of law, and mathematics

IV. Gift of the Nile

A. Ideal conditions for an empire Geography:

fertile soil and security from invasion

Religion: God-Kings, pyramids and the afterlife

IV. Gift of the Nile

B. The Egyptian Empire Cosmopolitanism: the

Hyksos, Semites, military conquest, and economic exchange

Akhenaten: monotheism and plain style

Tutankhamen: retrenchment and the Battle of Kadesh

King Tut in 2007

Steve Martin, “King Tut” (1979)

V. The Semites

A. The Hebrew Alternative Mesopotamian origins

Familiar stories, yet Abraham rejects polytheism; makes a covenant with Yahweh

Journeys to Palestine From Ur to Haron to Hebron

(Genesis 11-12) Egypt and Exodus

Hebrews reenter the promised land

Receive a new ethic and legal code (Ten Commandments)

V. The Semites

B. Kings like all the nations

Judges: A loose confederation of tribes that unified armies in times of danger

Davidic kingship: monarchy

Prophets: Calling the people back to Yahweh

“City of David”

V. The Semites

C. Exile Assyrians: Hebrew

division; Tiglath-pileser III (722)

New Babylonians: Nebuchadnezzar II

V. The Semites

D. Second Temple Judaism

A new Judaism: text>temple; intention>ritual

Rebuilding the temple: Ezra and Nehemiah

Strands of Judaism: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes

Epilogue

• James Davison Hunter, To Change the World