Under Open Skies

Asia is the largest landmass on Earth and, to a large extent, the historical engine of humanity. I do not assume that human history has a preordained direction or purpose, but the seeds of the great processes that brought us from hunter-gathering to nuclear energy and reality TV can be found, for better or worse, in the vast stretch of land between the British Isles in the west and Japan in the east. In Asia, writing was invented, enabling the emergence of complex governance and—to use the term somewhat anachronistically—beginning what we call history. In Asia, the wheel was invented and the horse domesticated, fundamentally changing how humans move through space, exchange goods and ideas, and wage war. From Asia emerged the language family that dominates most of the world today: the Indo-European family. In Asia, the first urban settlements were built, and it is the birthplace of the great living religions, from the Abrahamic and Brahmanic faiths to the Chinese and Iranian traditions. These words are not intended to disparage other cultures that had the misfortune of forming outside the "real world"—my apologies to Pre-Columbian and African cultures—but the truly significant developments happened somewhere between Ireland and Honshu. Until the modern era and the rise of the West, I believe one can speak of three Asian axial civilizations—a kind of "mother ship"—which radiated onto their surroundings and onto each other, creating original phenomena on one hand and syncretic ones on the other, the latter being, in my view, the most fascinating. These civilizations are the Iranian, the Chinese, and the Indian. These three, to make a coarse generalization for the sake of discussion, are characterized by cultural cohesion and continuity from a relatively early stage of history. They created religions and belief systems that evolved, branched out, and generated further systems, aesthetic ideals, and stable norms of administration that were exported to neighboring regions. This does not mean that the cultures of Southeast Asia, the Middle East, or Tibet did not absorb influence from elsewhere or create autonomous cultures, but it can be stated with a high degree of certainty that the most influential external factors on these regions were one or more of the three great Asian civilizations. The contacts between the various regions of Asia (and I include Europe here, which in my eyes is a continent in the same way Algiers is a continent) gave birth to diverse developments in art, religion, technology, and politics, creating a cultural richness that fundamentally shaped the modern world. This blog will be dedicated to these contacts, and others. Source: www.macalester.edu

Asia is the largest landmass on Earth and, to a large extent, the historical engine of humanity. I do not assume that human history has a direction or purpose, but the seeds of the great processes that brought humanity from hunter-gathering to nuclear energy and reality TV can be found, for better or worse, in the vast stretch of land between the British Isles in the west and Japan in the east.

In Asia, writing was invented, enabling the emergence of new and complex structures of governance and, somewhat anachronistically, beginning what we call history. In Asia, the wheel was invented and the horse domesticated, changing how humans move through space, exchange goods, populations, and ideas, and how they wage war. From Asia emerged the language family that effectively dominates most of the world today: the Indo-European family. In Asia, the first urban settlements were built, and it is the birthplace of most of the great religions existing today, from the Abrahamic and Brahmanic faiths to the Chinese and Iranian traditions. These words are not intended to disparage other cultures that had the misfortune of forming outside the "real world"—my apologies to Pre-Columbian and African cultures—but the truly interesting things happened somewhere between Ireland and Honshu.

Until the modern era and the rise of the West, I believe one can speak of three Asian axial civilizations, a kind of "mother ship," which radiated onto their surroundings and onto each other, creating original phenomena on one hand and syncretic ones on the other, the latter being, in my view, the most fascinating. These civilizations are the Iranian, the Chinese, and the Indian. These three, to make a coarse generalization for the sake of discussion, are characterized by cultural cohesion and continuity from a relatively early stage of history. They created religions and belief systems that evolved, branched out, and generated further systems, aesthetic ideals, and stable norms of government and administration that were exported to neighboring regions, which were sometimes influenced by more than one axial culture. This does not mean that the cultures of Southeast Asia, the Middle East, or Tibet did not absorb influence from other possible places or create autonomous cultures, but it can be stated with a high degree of certainty that the most influential external factors on the culture of these regions were one or more of the three great Asian civilizations.

The contacts between the various regions of Asia (and the intention here includes Europe, which in my eyes is a continent in the same way Algiers is a continent) gave birth to diverse and fascinating developments in art, religion, technology, and politics, and generally created an extremely diverse cultural richness that fundamentally influenced the way the world we live in today developed.

This blog will be dedicated to these contacts, and others.

Source: www.macalester.edu