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Historic Platypus

This year, I will be teaching World History I (prehistory to 1500). As such, I've tried to sketch out for the students the three broad phases of man and their most basic worldview. Any attempt to do this sort of thing is problematic at best, but high schoolers need something to start with, something foundational, before the process of deconstruction (and reconstruction?) can be done in college.

The first is ancient (or pagan) man. Ancient man's approach to life was essentially tragic: hope, joy, and love were fleeting at best and the underlying structure of reality was rooted in pain and chaos. The best a person could do was to bear up nobly under the weight of suffering and turn it into some great act or art that gave meaning to existence.

The second is medieval (or monotheistic) man. Medieval man's approach to life was essentially comedic: no matter how bad things get, they will be resolved for good in the end. If we're talking about the European Christians of the middle ages, then it ends with a wedding.

The third is modern man. Modern man's approach to life was essentially domineering or consumerist: man, through science, becoming master of nature and himself/herself so as to order all things to his/her taste. From this seemed to emerge postmodern man. Postmodern man doubted the ability of science and technology to deliver all it promised and turned instead to language and narrative to achieve mastery over self and the environment. Postmodern man's tastes often differed from those of modern man, and indeed claimed to be modern man's great rival, but the end goal was much the same.

Comments

Linds said…
Cool! I've been trying to come up with a similar construct for my freshmen to hang their ancient-medieval world history upon. How do you maintain the medieval one without being western-centric? I find my biggest problem is trying to help them understand the world 'as it was' because they have trouble holding the east and west in their minds at once since they're so predisposed to the western view.
11:05 PM
James said…
I think that the comedic phase can be applied to the Islamic world as well (the whole world as part of the Umma). As for Japan, China, and subsaharan Africa, I explain to the kids that they never went through a medieval phase. Japan, for instance, went strait from Ancient to Modern. I also try to work hard at explaining that these three periods are no qualitative, merely explanatory. Thus, the modern phase is not "better than" the medieval, nor is it "dishonorable" or "backwards." Finally, I just flat out tell them that the tripartite history was a product of the Enlightenment and openly Eurocentric as originally conceived. The interesting thing is that when I explain that certain cultures haven't passed through all three stages in "Eurocentric" order, and that's neither good nor bad, a lot of things seem to click for the students. I think it's the beginning for them of learning to appreciate cultures as entities in their own right, not as simply "weird" or "different."
5:23 PM
James said…
*Qualification* When I mentioned Japan going from Ancient to modern, I meant it in terms of world-picture. In terms of social structure, they of course had a similar system to that of medieval Europe (that medieval system, of course, not being perfectly homogeneous either by any stretch).
5:55 PM
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