What do we teach when we teach "Medieval Europe"?
Do we teach Europe to set up Historical #Comparison?
OR to teach a Global (or, Alex West @siwaratrikalpa's much more coherent Hemispheric) #MiddleAges?
Here's how I see the two options...
(obvs others, I'm a Byzantinist after all)
My students discuss CWickham's intro in
Medieval Europe (2016; Review: I like the book)
CW argues for "Medieval Europe" as artificial category with value in setting up historical #comparison.
There's a cleverness to that.
But here's my problem, as explained to my students...
There is no comparison.
Practically speaking.
To do a comparison, you don't need to just find a region with some big similar stats (geog, pop, resources), you need to find something similarly studied, with comparable bibliographies.
MAYBE, in not too long, "Medieval China"?
Did I mention I'm a Byzantinist?
How does Byzantium fit into comparative discussions of "Medieval Europe"?
Hint: rhetorical question; always going to end up in a non sequitur.
Comparable region ("Eastern Mediterranean") hasn't been studied as such.
Or else--opps--it's sub-Europe:
Alternative: Global Middle Ages is the right instinct.
BUT it hasn't been given the right framework.
Alex West (@siwaratrikalpa)'s framework of the "HEMISPHERIC" Middle Ages works.
Two big payoffs of his proposed approach ...
indomedieval.medium.com/the-hemispheri…
1. "Middle Ages" does actually work for a (broad, general) historical descriptor--a period when peoples across Afro-Eurasia were connected in certain ways.
It doesn't need to just be "artificial" and "for the sake of comparison".
Because ...
2. Medieval Peoples ALLLL across Afro-Eurasia
were CONNECTED & INTERACTING.
THAT's the story!
All the recent paradigm-shifting Black Death research
(vid.: Monica H. Green @monicaMedHist)
one-stop proof-texts this point:
Black Death IS Hemisphere-wide!
smithsonianmag.com/history/did-bl…
Conclusions: "Medieval"/"Middle Ages" useful
NOT (old reason) bc "helps explain Europe today"
NOT (newish reason) bc useful analytic in
Global Comparative History
BUT bc is hella ACTUAL connectivity & interaction across Afro-Eurasia during the era
& we gotta learn about that.
Conclusions2:
Scholars of fields like #Byzantine Studies (me!), the Indian subcontinent & elsewhere
can stop working under oppressive need to make our area "comparable" to Europe.
Instead: learn how peoples connected & interacted.
Because that stuff is AMAZING and NEW.
/fin
Creds:
1444
visualcapitalist.com/map-of-medieva…
CwME
yalebooksnetwork.org/yupblog/wp-con…
1215Chi
timemaps.com/history/china-…
1340Eu
gifex.com/detail9-en/200…
EHem
indomedieval.medium.com/the-middle-age…
Trade
historiamag.com/international-…
BLdeath
smithsonianmag.com/history/did-bl…
Portolan
…collegelibrarycambridge.wordpress.com/2015/08/14/por…
Ship
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Madr…
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