Black Athena

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Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (Rutgers University Press 1987, ISBN 0-8135-1277-8) is a work by Martin Bernal. It expounds a controversial hypothesis that ancient Greece, and hence Western civilization, derived much of its cultural roots from Afroasiatic (Egyptian and Phoenician) cultures. The work was published in three volumes:

  • Volume I, The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985 (1987)
  • Volume II, The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence (1991)
  • Volume III, The Linguistic Evidence (2006)

Since Bernal specialized in the study of the evolution of the Chinese language, in Black Athena he takes a language-oriented approach to understanding cultural influences, and rejects to some degree archaeological evidence and historical accounts.

Contents

[edit] Conflicting views

According to Bernal, there are two main theories of the origin of Greek civilization: the "Aryan theory" and the "Phoenician theory". The Aryan theory is that the early settlement of Greece was from the north-west (i.e. central Europe) which he further sub-divides into two versions: "Strong" and "Weak". The Strong theory holds that the area of Greece was uninhabited before the arrival of the Aryans. The Weak theory holds that the area had natives before the Aryans arrived.

Bernal rejects the Aryan theory of colonization based on supposed lack of evidence. He cites Greek historians to prove that the Greeks of the time of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle believed that Phoenician civiliation colonized Greece. Based on this, he creates a new theory of Greek origins, namely, that Greece was colonized by northern invaders mixing with a colony established by Phoenicia. In the midst of this theory he takes pains to convince the reader that Egyptians and Phoenicians were mostly of African instead of Mediterranean descent.[dubious — see talk page]

[edit] Origins of research

Going on to explain the historiography of Egypt and North Africa, he shows the reader many examples of great "Western" leaders expressing interest or open admiration of Egypt and the Near East.

While 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, Bernal emphasizes African elements in Ancient Near Eastern culture, and the denunciation of 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). The book had enormous impact on African American Afrocentrist movements, because of its de-centering impact on classical images of the West.

Bernal proposes that Greek evolved from the contact between an Indo-European language and culturally influential Egyptian and Semitic languages. He cites as examples many 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.

[edit] Reception

Black Athena has provoked a series of published works debating it (positively and negatively), including:

  • Martin Bernal, Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics, 2001.
  • Jacques Berlinerblau, Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals 1999.

Some subsequent writers have been heavily critical of what they consider to be Bernal's confusion of culture, ethnicity and race; and what they take to be unsystematic and linguistically incompetent handling of etymologies (MacLean Rogers, G., 1996, Quo vadis? , in: Lefkowitz & MacLean Rogers, o.c., pp. 444-454; Snowden, Bernal's 'Blacks ; Brace, C. L., D. P. Tracer, L. A. Yaroch, J. Robb, K. Brandt, and A. R. Nelson, 1996, Clines and Clusters versus 'Race': A Test in Ancient Egypt and the Case of a Death on the Nile, in: Lefkowitz & MacLean Rogers, o.c., pp. 129-164; Baines, J., 1996, On the aims and methods of Black Athena, in: Lefkowitz & MacLean Rogers, o.c., pp. 27-48.)

Bernal has said that he, if not his publisher, always preferred the title African Athena.

[edit] Selected publications

What follows is a is list of relevant publications listed on the now inactive 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 Books. 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," Isis 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.

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

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