Black Athena
Encyclopedia
Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization is a highly controversial three-volume work by Martin Bernal
. He discusses Ancient Greece
in a new light. Bernal's thesis discusses the perception of ancient Greece in relation to Greece's African and Asiatic neighbors, which he believes had an influence on ancient Greece. Bernal alleges that a change in this Western perception took place from the 18th century onward and that this change fostered a subsequent denial by Western academia of any significant African and (western) Asiatic influences on ancient Greek culture.
Actual mainstream scholarship does indeed recognize significant Near Eastern cultural and art influence on early Archaic Greece during the 8th century BC, known as the Orientalizing Period
.
, Plato
and Aristotle
believed that Phoenician civilization originally colonized Greece. He creates a new theory of Greek origins: That Greece was recolonized by northern invaders when they mixed with an existing colony already established by Phoenicia.
Going on to explain the historiography
of Egypt
and North Africa
, he cites examples of prominent European leaders expressing interest or open admiration of Egypt and the Near East
.
It is widely accepted that the Classical Greek language arose from the Proto-Greek language
with influences from the Anatolian languages
that were spoken nearby, and the culture is assumed to have developed from a comparable amalgamation of elements.
However, Bernal emphasizes African elements in Ancient Near East
ern culture and denounces the alleged Eurocentrism
of 19th and 20th century research, including the very slogan "Ex Oriente Lux" of Orientalists
which, according to Bernal, betrays "the Western appropriation of ancient Near Eastern culture for the sake of its own development" (p. 423).
Bernal proposes instead that Greek
evolved from the contact between an Indo-European language and culturally influential Egyptian
and Semitic
languages. He cites many examples of Egyptian or Semitic roots for Greek words, including some words with currently accepted Indo-European etymologies. Bernal places the introduction of the Greek alphabet
(unattested before 750 BC) between 1800 and 1400 BC, and the poet Hesiod
in the tenth century.
people and Afrocentrist movements, because it offers a less Eurocentric theory of origin for western civilization.
The book also ignited a debate in the academic community. While some reviewers contend that studies of the origin of Greek civilization were tainted by a foundation of 19th century racism, many have criticised Bernal for the speculative nature of his hypothesis, his unsystematic and linguistically incompetent handling of etymologies as well as his naive handling of ancient myth and historiography. The claims made in Black Athena were heavily questioned inter alia in Black Athena Revisited (1996), a collection of essays edited by Mary Lefkowitz
, Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and her colleague Guy MacLean Rogers.
Critics voice their strongest doubts over Bernal's approach to language and word derivations (etymologies). Cambridge Egyptologist John D. Ray
has accused Bernal's work of having a confirmation bias
. Edith Hall
compares Bernal's thesis to the myth of the Olympian gods
overwhelming the Titans
and Giants, which was once thought of as a historical recollection of Homo sapiens
taking over from Neanderthal man
. She asserts that this historical approach to myth firmly belongs in the nineteenth century.
Others have challenged the lack of archaeological evidence for Bernal's thesis. Egyptologist James Weinstein points out that there is very little evidence that the ancient Egyptians were a colonizing people in the third millennium and second millennium BC. Furthermore, there is no evidence for Egyptian colonies of any sort in the Aegean world. Weinstein accuses Bernal of relying primarily on his interpretations of Greek myths as well as distorted interpretations of the archaeological and historical data.
In 2001 Bernal published "Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to Critics" as a response criticism of his earlier works.
M. Skupin. "Anacalypsis II: A review of Black Athena Vol. I and II by Martin Bernal." Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications, Vol. 20 (1991), p. 28-29.
Martin Bernal
Martin Gardiner Bernal is a Professor Emeritus of Government and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. He is a scholar of modern Chinese political history...
. He discusses Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
in a new light. Bernal's thesis discusses the perception of ancient Greece in relation to Greece's African and Asiatic neighbors, which he believes had an influence on ancient Greece. Bernal alleges that a change in this Western perception took place from the 18th century onward and that this change fostered a subsequent denial by Western academia of any significant African and (western) Asiatic influences on ancient Greek culture.
Actual mainstream scholarship does indeed recognize significant Near Eastern cultural and art influence on early Archaic Greece during the 8th century BC, known as the Orientalizing Period
Orientalizing Period
In the history of ancient Greece, the Orientalizing period is the cultural and art historical period informed by the art of Anatolia, Syria, Assyria, Phoenicia and Egypt, which started during the later part of the 7th century BCE. It encompasses a new, Orientalizing style, spurred by a period of...
.
The Thesis
Bernal rejects the theory that Greek civilization was founded by Aryan settlers from Central Europe. He cites Greek historians and asserts his references prove the Greeks of the time of SocratesSocrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
and Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
believed that Phoenician civilization originally colonized Greece. He creates a new theory of Greek origins: That Greece was recolonized by northern invaders when they mixed with an existing colony already established by Phoenicia.
Going on to explain the historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
, he cites examples of prominent European leaders expressing interest or open admiration of Egypt and the Near East
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
.
It is widely accepted that the Classical Greek language arose from the Proto-Greek language
Proto-Greek language
The Proto-Greek language is the assumed last common ancestor of all known varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean, the classical Greek dialects , and ultimately Koine, Byzantine and modern Greek...
with influences from the Anatolian languages
Anatolian languages
The Anatolian languages comprise a group of extinct Indo-European languages that were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language.-Origins:...
that were spoken nearby, and the culture is assumed to have developed from a comparable amalgamation of elements.
However, Bernal emphasizes African elements in Ancient Near East
Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia...
ern culture and denounces the alleged Eurocentrism
Eurocentrism
Eurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective and with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture...
of 19th and 20th century research, including the very slogan "Ex Oriente Lux" of Orientalists
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
which, according to Bernal, betrays "the Western appropriation of ancient Near Eastern culture for the sake of its own development" (p. 423).
Bernal proposes instead that Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
evolved from the contact between an Indo-European language and culturally influential Egyptian
Egyptian language
Egyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
and Semitic
Semitic
In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...
languages. He cites many examples of Egyptian or Semitic roots for Greek words, including some words with currently accepted Indo-European etymologies. Bernal places the introduction of the Greek alphabet
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
(unattested before 750 BC) between 1800 and 1400 BC, and the poet Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
in the tenth century.
Reception
Black Athena is a clear example of how different points of view can alter the representation of history. The book had an enormous impact on African AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
people and Afrocentrist movements, because it offers a less Eurocentric theory of origin for western civilization.
The book also ignited a debate in the academic community. While some reviewers contend that studies of the origin of Greek civilization were tainted by a foundation of 19th century racism, many have criticised Bernal for the speculative nature of his hypothesis, his unsystematic and linguistically incompetent handling of etymologies as well as his naive handling of ancient myth and historiography. The claims made in Black Athena were heavily questioned inter alia in Black Athena Revisited (1996), a collection of essays edited by Mary Lefkowitz
Mary Lefkowitz
Mary R. Lefkowitz is an American classical scholar and Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at Wellesley College. She is best known to non-Classicists for her anti-Afrocentrism book, Not Out of Africa . She is the widow of Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones.-Biography:Lefkowitz earned her B.A...
, Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and her colleague Guy MacLean Rogers.
Critics voice their strongest doubts over Bernal's approach to language and word derivations (etymologies). Cambridge Egyptologist John D. Ray
John D. Ray
Professor John D. Ray is the current Sir Herbert Thompson Professor of Egyptology at the University of Cambridge. His principal field of interest covers the Late and Hellenistic periods of Egypt, with special reference to documents in the demotic script, and he is also known for deciphering the...
has accused Bernal's work of having a confirmation bias
Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true.David Perkins, a geneticist, coined the term "myside bias" referring to a preference for "my" side of an issue...
. Edith Hall
Edith Hall
Edith Hall is a British scholar of classics and cultural history, and from 2006 until 2011 held a Research Chair at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she directed the Centre for the Reception of Greece and Rome until November 2011, when she resigned over dispute regarding funding for...
compares Bernal's thesis to the myth of the Olympian gods
Twelve Olympians
The Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon , in Greek mythology, were the principal deities of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, and Hades were siblings. Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Athena, Apollo, and Artemis were children of Zeus...
overwhelming the Titans
Titan (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities, descendants of Gaia and Uranus, that ruled during the legendary Golden Age....
and Giants, which was once thought of as a historical recollection of Homo sapiens
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
taking over from Neanderthal man
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
. She asserts that this historical approach to myth firmly belongs in the nineteenth century.
Others have challenged the lack of archaeological evidence for Bernal's thesis. Egyptologist James Weinstein points out that there is very little evidence that the ancient Egyptians were a colonizing people in the third millennium and second millennium BC. Furthermore, there is no evidence for Egyptian colonies of any sort in the Aegean world. Weinstein accuses Bernal of relying primarily on his interpretations of Greek myths as well as distorted interpretations of the archaeological and historical data.
In 2001 Bernal published "Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to Critics" as a response criticism of his earlier works.
Volume 1
- Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization Rutgers University Press (1987) ISBN 0-8135-1277-8)
- Black Athena: Afro-Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilization: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece, 1785-1985 Vol 1 (Paperback) Vintage; New Ed edition (21 Nov 1991) ISBN 0-0998-8780-0 ISBN 978-0099887805
- Black Athena: Afro-Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilization: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece, 1785-1985 Vol 1 (Paperback) Free Association BooksFree Association BooksFree Association Books is an innovative project started in 1980s London. It arose as the brainchild of Bob Young and colleagues, who, disillusioned by the decline of the liberatory movement, began a search using psychoanalysis to understand the problems of liberation...
(29 Nov 2004) ISBN 0-9469-6056-9 ISBN 978-0946960569
Volume 2
- Black Athena: Afro-Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilization: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence Vol 2 (Paperback) Publisher: Free Association Books (1 Jan 1991) ISBN 1-8534-3054-4 ISBN 978-1853430541
- Black Athena: the Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization Vol 2 (Hardcover) Rutgers University Press (Jul 1991) ISBN 0-8135-1584-X ISBN 978-0813515847
Volume 3
- Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume III: The Linguistic Evidence Vol 3 (Hardcover) Rutgers University Press (25 Nov 2006) ISBN 0-8135-3655-3 ISBN 978-0813536552
- Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume III: The Linguistic Evidence Free Association Books (1 Feb 2006) ISBN 1-8534-3799-9 ISBN 978-1853437991
Books and articles about Black Athena
- Black Athena 2: History without Rules. Robert L. Pounder The American Historical Review, Vol. 97, No. 2 (Apr., 1992), pp. 461–464 .
- Mary R. Lefkowitz, Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth As History, 1997, ISBN 046509838X ISBN 978-0465098385
- Mary R. Lefkowitz and Guy MacLean Rogers (eds.), Black Athena Revisited, 1996., ISBN 0807845558 ISBN 978-0807845554
- Mary R. Lefkowitz, History Lesson, 2008, ISBN 030012659X ISBN 978-0300126594
- Martin BernalMartin BernalMartin Gardiner Bernal is a Professor Emeritus of Government and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. He is a scholar of modern Chinese political history...
, Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics, 2001. - Walter Slack, White Athena: The Afrocentrist Theft of Greek Civilization, 2006, ISBN 0595393209 ISBN 978-0595393206
- Jacques BerlinerblauJacques BerlinerblauJacques Berlinerblau is associate professor and Director of the Program for Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University...
, Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals, 1999, ISBN 0813525888 ISBN 978-0813525884
M. Skupin. "Anacalypsis II: A review of Black Athena Vol. I and II by Martin Bernal." Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications, Vol. 20 (1991), p. 28-29.
Selected publications
What follows is a list of relevant publications listed on the www.blackathena.com website.- 1976 Chinese Socialism Before 1907, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
- 1987 Black Athena The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization 1: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985. London: Free Association BooksFree Association BooksFree Association Books is an innovative project started in 1980s London. It arose as the brainchild of Bob Young and colleagues, who, disillusioned by the decline of the liberatory movement, began a search using psychoanalysis to understand the problems of liberation...
. and New Brunswick: Rutgers University. - 1988 "The British Utilitarians, Imperialism and the Fall of the Ancient Model," Culture and History 3: 98-127.
- 1989 "Classics in Crisis: An Outsider's View In," Classics: A Discipline and Profession in Crisis? Ed. P. Culham and L. Edmunds. University Press of America. pp. 67–76.
- "Black Athena and the APA." in "The Challenge of Black Athena" Special issue of Arethusa. pp. 17–37.
- 1990 "Responses to Critical Reviews of Black Athena: Volume I: in the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 3/1:111- 137.
- Cadmean Letters: The Westward Diffusion of The Semitic Alphabet Before 1400 B.C. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
- 1991 Black Athena 2: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence. London, Free Association Books; New Brunswick: Rutgers University.
- 1992 "Animadversions on the Origins of Western Science," IsisIsisIsis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
83, 4 (December): 596-607. - 1993 "Response", to "Dialogue: Martin Bernal's Black Athena." Journal of Women's History 4.3, (Winter):119-135.
- "Phoenician Politics and Egyptian Justice in Ancient Greece." in Kurt Raaflaub ed. Anfänge politischen Denkens in der Antike: nahöstliochen Kulturen und die Griechen. Schriften des Historischen Kollegs. Kolloquien 24. München: R. Oldenbourg Verlag. pp. 241–252.
- "Reply to L. A. Trittle," Liverpool Classical Monthly 18.2: whole issue.
- 1994 "Response to Robert Palter," History of Science 32:1-20.
- 1995 "Race, Class and Gender in the Formation of The Aryan Model of Greek Origins." South Atlantic Quarterly. 94.4. (Fall): 987-1008.
- "Politically Correct: Mythologies of Neo-Conservatism in the American Academy," New Political Science. 38/39:17-28.
- 1997 "Responses to Black Athena." Black Athena: Ten Years After. Special edition of Talanta vols. 28 and 29. pp. 65–99, 165-173 and 209-219.
- 2005 "Martin Bernal," by Kinohi Nishikawa. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey, Jr. 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 114-15.
- Journal of Arethusa.
External links
- Black Athena website
- Bernal reviews Lefkowitz's "Not out of Africa"
- Josine H. Blok, "Proof and Persuasion in Black Athena: The Case of K. O. Müller", in: Journal of the History of Ideas 57.4 (1996) 705-724; a critical look at Bernal's historiography.
- Ancient Histories and Modern Humanities by John R. Lenz (Drew UniversityDrew UniversityDrew University is a private university located in Madison, New Jersey.Originally established as the Drew Theological Seminary in 1867, the university later expanded to include an undergraduate liberal arts college in 1928 and commenced a program of graduate studies in 1955...
) - With Black Athena into the third millennium CE? by Wim van Binsbergen
- The Black Athena Debate from The World Ages Archive, a website operated by Meres J. Weche, who says "The aim of the World Ages Archive is to provide an extensive web-based reference for the study of ancient chronological revisionist, catastrophist..."