Founding Gods, Inventing Nations (eBook)

Conquest and Culture Myths from Antiquity to Islam

William F. McCants (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2011
192 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-4006-9 (ISBN)

Infos

William F. McCants received his PhD from Princeton University and is currently adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University.

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From the dawn of writing in Sumer to the sunset of the Islamic empire, Founding Gods, Inventing Nations traces four thousand years of speculation on the origins of civilization. Investigating a vast range of primary sources, some of which are translated here for the first time, and focusing on the dynamic influence of the Greek, Roman, and Arab conquests of the Near East, William McCants looks at the ways the conquerors and those they conquered reshaped their myths of civilization's origins in response to the social and political consequences of empire. The Greek and Roman conquests brought with them a learned culture that competed with that of native elites. The conquering Arabs, in contrast, had no learned culture, which led to three hundred years of Muslim competition over the cultural orientation of Islam, a contest reflected in the culture myths of that time. What we know today as Islamic culture is the product of this contest, whose protagonists drew heavily on the lore of non-Arab and pagan antiquity. McCants argues that authors in all three periods did not write about civilization's origins solely out of pure antiquarian interest--they also sought to address the social and political tensions of the day. The strategies they employed and the postcolonial dilemmas they confronted provide invaluable context for understanding how authors today use myth and history to locate themselves in the confusing aftermath of empire.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 7.11.2011
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Weitere Religionen
• Schlagworte: Abrahamic religions • Agriculture (Chinese mythology) • Ahura • Ancient Canaanite religion • Ancient Culture • Ancient Egyptian deities • Ancient Greece • Ancient Mythology • Ancient Texts • arab conquests • arabs • Astrology • Babylonian Astronomy • Berossus • Bible • Cainan • Cainites • Carpentry • Christian Apologetics • Church Fathers • Civilization • Clement of Alexandria • conquerors • ConQuest • Conquests • cosmogony • creation myth • Cultural History • Culture hero • culture myths • Culture of Greece • deity • Democritus • Diodorus Siculus • egyptians • Enki • Enlil • Epigraphy • Eridu • ethnic belonging • etiology • Exegesis • ex nihilo • Farzin (singer) • God • Greek conquests • Greek ethnography • Greek Mythology • Greek Philosophy • Greeks • Haider • Hebrew Bible • Hebrews • Hellenistic period • hellenization • hephaestus • Herodotus • Hesiod • historian • Histories (Herodotus) • Historiography • Ibn Qutayba • ironsmithing • Islam • Islamic culture • Islamic thinking • Isocrates • israelites • Jewish History • Jews • Jubal (Bible) • Judaism • Lamech (descendant of Cain) • Lamech (father of Noah) • learned culture • Literature • Manetho • Marduk • material culture • Medicine • Mesopotamia • Metallurgy • Michael Doran • Michael Horowitz • Monotheism • Muhammad • Muslim • Najm • narrative • Native History • Near East • origin • Origins • Paganism • Patricia Crone • Philo of Byblos • Philosopher • Philosophy • Pliny • Polemic • Polydore Vergil • postconquest period • Pre-Islamic Culture • Princeton University Press • Prometheus Bound • protography • Pseudepigrapha • Ptah • Ptolemaic Kingdom • Qur'an • Quran • Religion • religious text • Roman conquests • Romans • Sanchuniathon • Science • Sky deity • Stephanie Kaplan • sumerian religion • syrians • Technology • Theophrastus • The Other Hand • Thoth • Umayyad Caliphate • Utnapishtim • Vahid • Writing • Zoroastrianism
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-4006-6 / 1400840066
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-4006-9 / 9781400840069