Putting Modernity in its Place(s)

Reflections on Jack Goody’s The Theft of History

Bibliographic Data

ID2352245
AuthorsKenneth Pomeranz (0000-0002-0711-5180, University of California, Irvine, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume26
Issue7-8
Pages32-51
Publication date2009-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTheory Culture & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-2764 • E-ISSN: 1460-3616
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0263276409348080
OpenAlexW2043458148
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited43

Jack Goody's work on the origins, spatial extent and defining characteristics of modernity has vigorously questioned claims that only European history led to assorted modern characteristics: capitalism, science, democracy, romantic love, and inwardly-motivated personal restraint. He argues that many societies which experienced the Bronze Age urban revolution share certain important material similarities (and some differences) which set them apart from others, and are best understood by constructing an analytical grid rather than categorical stages. With respect to alleged affective differences, Goody takes a more strongly relativist stance, rejecting any developmental divide in the prevalence of romantic love, internalized self-discipline, etc. These useful steps nonetheless generate new problems. One concerns the relationship between material/technical changes, which seem to suggest a few very general historical periods (one marked by early metallurgy, writing, etc., and another by the modern energy revolution), and affective traits, which have no history in this schema. A second concerns periodization itself; while agreeing that periods defined by the experience of one region (e.g. a feudal era) are usually unhelpful, some general terms (such as early modern) do seem essential for conceptualizing developments that, though less epochal than writing or fossil fuels, are nonetheless important

Aesthetics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Feudalism · Modernity · Periodization · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Romance · Sociology · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology

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