Essay writing on 'Problems of Periodization in History'
Answers
Answered by
14
The modern history profession emerged in Europe, and many well-established schemes of periodization were designed to make sense of European history. This is true, for example, of the traditional division into ancient, medieval, and modern periods. Such labels make little sense outside of Europe, but they are so well established that they sometimes get used nevertheless. Similarly, Chinese historians have long used dynastic labels to provide a framework for historical writing, but these, too, are labels that mean little elsewhere. Is it possible to find labels that make sense for Africa as well as for the whole of Eurasia, the Americas, and the Pacific? On this question, too, there is currently no consensus among historians.
Periodization poses theoretical problems because any chronological scheme highlights some aspects of the past and obscures others. While a historian of gender might look for eras in which the relative status and power of women and men changed (the granting of suffrage to women, perhaps, or the emergence of patriarchal social relations in early agrarian societies), a historian of war might be more interested in technological changes that transformed military conflict (such as the use of gunpowder or the appearance of the first organized armies), while a historian of religion might look to the appearance of the so-called universal religions in the first millennium BCE.
Periodization poses theoretical problems because any chronological scheme highlights some aspects of the past and obscures others. While a historian of gender might look for eras in which the relative status and power of women and men changed (the granting of suffrage to women, perhaps, or the emergence of patriarchal social relations in early agrarian societies), a historian of war might be more interested in technological changes that transformed military conflict (such as the use of gunpowder or the appearance of the first organized armies), while a historian of religion might look to the appearance of the so-called universal religions in the first millennium BCE.
Answered by
1
Answer:
the Morden history profession emerged in Europe and many well established schemes of periodization were designed to make sense of European history .
Similar questions
Physics,
8 months ago
Physics,
8 months ago
Accountancy,
8 months ago
Economy,
1 year ago
English,
1 year ago
Environmental Sciences,
1 year ago
English,
1 year ago