Symposium: Historical Roots of AfrocentrismGerald Early, WilsonJ. Moses, Louis Wilson, and Mary R. Lefkowitz Gerald Early: There is range of ideas and stances that collectively constitute what is called Afrocentrism. Some are demagogic a n d even fascist or racist; others are m o r e n u a n c e d and thoughtful, and probably worthy o f o u r attention and engagement. T h e most i m p o r t a n t Afrocentric theses that can give us pause are these: First, there exists a body of scholarship and o f intellectual assumptions that exhibit a decidedly white or Eurocentric bias in support of a white or Eurocentric political or social hegemony. Second, there is an African or non-white (or nonWestern) view of the world and of history that has been suppressed in a n d by the Western world, once again in s u p p o r t o f a white or a Eurocentric hegemony. Third, African peoples can come to full self-determination a n d achieve full humanity only when they are p e r m i t t e d to overthrow and d e n o u n c e white or Eurocentric premises and when they can fully realize a n d articulate their view and their consciousness through their own self-creation. That, I think, is a reasonable short list o f Afrocentric beliefs, differing f r o m the pop-culture Afrocentrism-largely an American expression--that speaks o f constructing identity through acts of c o n s u m p t i o n or makes irrational assertions o f black superiority, a largely nonsensical reassertion of nineteenth-century E u r o p e a n race theories. What are the origins of these Afrocentric ideas? I am not sure, b u t I suggest three areas of inquiry. First, there are the intellectual trends of post-modernism, Marxism, deconstruction, and other ideas that became especially p o p u l a r in many corridors of the post-World War II academy. (Afrocentrism, after all, has had its biggest effect on education.) These doctrines have suggested that the bourgeois social order is corrupt, repressive, and, most important, arbitrary, that knowledge is power, that truth is bourgeois and anyone is capable of f o r m i n g his own truth to suit his own political and social purposes. Therefore, Foucault, Derrida, FredricJameson, and Stephen Greenblatt have been just as i m p o r t a n t in the rise of Afrocentrism and its offshoot, multiculturalism, a Gerald Early is professor of English and director of the African and African-American studies program at Washington University, St. Louis, MO. Wilson J. Moses is professor of history at Pennyslvania State University, State College, PA. Louis Wilson is professor of African-American and African History at Smith College, Northampton, MA. Mary R. Lefkowitz is Mellon Professor of Humanities at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA. Please address correspondence to 575 Ewing Street, Princeton, NJ 08540. These remarks are from an October 1993 conference on Afrocentrism sponsored by the Manhattan Institute's Center for New American Community and Washington University's Department of African and African-American Studies. Printed by permission. AcademicQuestions, as virtual moral or emotional imperatives. for the elements that bind t h e m together as a group. some are decidedly pro-Western in many respects. But there is no real evidence to s u p p o r t the claim that black history taught in a certain way produces black self-esteem. a n d Afrocentrism in turn reinforces the intellectual trends that b r o u g h t it into being. properly construed. a n d a set of commonly u n d e r s t o o d m e t h o d s and theories. possible. explains why Afrocentrism. the political turmoil of the 1960s. in the past twenty years or so is purely and utterly Western. long before "self-esteem" itself became a "cant word" in the culture.t h e black aesthetic of the seventies.Symposium 45 as was. It must be said. Nor is there anything inherent in the study of Africans or black people in the United States that is necessarily anti-Western. a n d pan-Africanism in the various forms it has taken since the eighteenth century. political purpose. In that respect Carter G. a climate in the academy in which the most fashionable "scholarship" is often sharply antiW e s t e r n m a k e s A f r o c e n t r i s m . As an academic p h e n o m e n o n . Second. Afrocentrism serves the p u r p o s e o f binding together the various strands of African and African-American studies. say. from Father Divine to Elijah M u h a m m a d . W o o d s o n ' s c o n f u s e d a r g u m e n t s a b o u t the t h e r a p e u t i c value o f black history in his 1933 b o o k The Miseducation of the Negro. as a h e i g h t e n e d form o f nationalism. Afrocentrism also has roots in the great American tendency to seek mental health t h r o u g h right-living and right believing. Third. is as an intellectual construct not unlike the works o f the great mind-healers and positive thinkers from Mary Baker Eddy to N o r m a n Vincent Peale. Afrocentrism is probably i m b e d d e d in earlier forms o f black nationalist t h o u g h t . a virtual bible for many Afrocentrists. it may even be argued that some pedagogical . as a critique o f the West. a n d black self-esteem. Indeed. In other words. with ideological and intellectual goals. W o o d s o n m a d e the c o n n e c t i o n between black history and black education. the black power movem e n t o f the sixties. has c o m e into being at a time when blacks feel their sense o f physical and spiritual c o m m u n i t y to be singularly u n d e r siege by many aspects of post-industrial liberal democratic capitalist culture. that historically n o t all manifestations o f black nationalism are or were anti-Western. As an ideology it represents the c o n t i n u e d longing a m o n g black Americans for some set of ideas that would bind t h e m together as a c o m m u n i t y and offer some alternative to an assimilation that is either foreclosed by whites or seen by blacks as an admission o f inferiority and defeat. W o o d s o n ' s contentions are a truism to many blacks. But the search by black people for a c o m m o n historical mission. It could even be argued that the d e v e l o p m e n t of these fields of study. though. transf o r m i n g t h e m f r o m an interdisciplinary hodge-podge into a unified discipline. other than a c o m m o n history o f oppression. Tuveson." Afrocentrists are like the people who come knocking on your door to present you with the good news. although the Afrocentric utopia is in a romanticized past. who developed useful methods for looking at the history of American millennial movements. American historians recognize in the latest revival of Afrocentrism patterns described by the late E. T h e r e is much to consider in the complexity in Afrocentrism. Moses: The Afrocentric tradition must be u n d e r s t o o d as a variety of utopian or millenarian movement. Recently. a r e s t r a i n e d a n d c o m p a s s i o n a t e critique o f Afrocentric utopianism. which alleged a relationship between black Americans and the ancient Egyptians. one might say. to use St. Afrocentrism is not a new movement. offering. revivals. the truth. I hope that this discussion will take it out of the realm of sensational newspaper stories and emotional outbursts to a measured deliberation of why America continues to be conf o u n d e d by race and befuddled by its inability to educate all o f its citizens well. and the late William G. and then they work backward from what they need to believe through . the real truth. Cross has called "the Negro to Black Conversion Experience. McLoughlin. Karl Mannheim. WilsonJ. have "put off the old man and put on the new man. in his classic Ideology and Utopia. defined a utopia as an idea or m o v e m e n t that resembles a religion m o r e closely than it does a political ideology. Afrocentrists are true believers who have undergone the charismatic experience that the African-American psychologist William R. o f the University of California at Berkeley." They start out as Saul and end up as Paul. And neither resentment nor alienation is a proper mental or emotional building block for a sense o f community. It makes one of its first appearances in an 1827 editorial in Freedom's Journal. rather than in a chiliastic future. Millennialist movements attract the type of person Eric Hoffer describes in The True Believer. as a sign that they. 1979 edition. Much of the recent attempt to create Afrocentric schools---or. and reforms. Those who convert to Afrocentrism often change their names. published a two-volume work.46 Academic Questions / Spring 1994 approaches suggested by Afrocentrists might simply induce m o r e black resentment or intensify black alienation. The Afrocentric tradition may also be u n d e r s t o o d within the pattern that Harold Walter T u r n e r describes in his article "Tribal Religious Movements. You cannot argue with them. These few preliminary remarks hardly do the subject justice. They convert because they find the message appealing. a distinguished Afro-Caribbean anthropologist at Stanford University." in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Paul's language. the black political equivalent of a Hebrew or Catholic school---comes from an understandable desperation due to the fact that many black communities are so beset by social problems that they are ill-equipped to handle. Black Folk Here and There. because they are convinced that you are the one who is confused. L. Clair Drake. awakenings. the late St. a m o n g its m a n y treasures. of Brown University. the first black newspaper in the United States. N. evangelical utopian m o v e m e n t s that couch their belief-systems in pseudo-scientific terms. and melanin theory. Afrocentrism is not an intellectual m o v e m e n t . it is a secular religion. to their credit. is as understandable as Christian fundamentalism. many o f these same black nationalists have u n d e r m i n e d their credibility by their f u n d a m e n talist anti-intellectualism and by their paranoid ravings about the ice-man inheritance. but historically-black nationalism. including Black Muslims and Afrocentrists. to a social scientist. Alexander Crummell. Unfortunately. They sublimate the frustration of their adherents. as they attempt to cope with the stresses and anxiety of m o d e r n urban life. Afrocentrism. 1991). Cheikh Anta Diop. while urging political separatism. and the m o r e you argue with t h e m logically. He is o p p o s e d to the vulgar stereotype of black culture that has been d o m i n a n t since the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. scatological variety of black ghetto culture that is associated with gangster rap. Such enthusiasts are often well-educated people. Most black nationalists. p u t t i n g it in Karl Mannheim's terms. T h e Afrocentrist dreams of appropriating the high culture of classical civilization and disdains the low culture o f gangster rap. Martin Delany. including J o h n Russwurm. in his Civilization or Barbarism (Brooklyn. who find in religious fundamentalism some insulation from a society that is corrupt. Ed- . of the sociology d e p a r t m e n t at Cornell. Afrocentrists resent the tendency to define black culture in terms of "primitivism grafted onto decadence. prurient. Like the late African-American critic Sterling Brown. because I think Afrocentrism and "creation science" are in the same category. Classical black nationalists and Afrocentrists since the nineteenth century. the m o r e passionately they explain to you why you are wrong. and violent. it must be observed that the father of contemporary Afrocentrism. few are sympathetic to the proposition that 2 Live Crew represents black culture." and "playing the dozens" (word games based on ritualized insult). Or. it is not an ideology." Diop's ardent followers are also o p p o s e d to the profane. O n e of the great ironies of black American life is that historically-not so m u c h today. Jewish conspiracies. demonstrates a respect for the concept of cultural literacy. I want to make use of her model." Converts speak with prophetic conviction.Y. has been a conduit for the transmission of high culture. In defense of Afrocentrism. Harper. that gangster rap must be u n d e r s t o o d as social pathology. in order to construct "proofs. W. Frances E. even people with scientific and technical training. "signifying monkeys. In this connection I must m e n t i o n the work of Professor Dorothy Nelkin. Although some may d e f e n d the rap-music g r o u p 2 Live Crew on First A m e n d m e n t grounds. Diop is also suspicious of the sentimental black cultural nationalism associated with Leopold Senghor and the French Negritude school. whose area o f research has b e e n the p r o b l e m of "creation science" in the schools.: Lawrence Hill Books. Diop c o n d e m n s the treatment of black folk as jazzy exotic primitives and erotic barbarians.Symposium 47 a system of rationalizations. insist. it is a utopia. If there is a reactive anger and resentment in some Afrocentric writing. B. They and their children were b a n n e d by force of law f r o m schools. Afrocentrism is not hate literature. E. they believed that some cultures are better than other cultures. A. Another point to r e m e m b e r is that the classics of the Afrocentric tradition. They made references to Egyptian civilization hoping to focus the minds of black folk on noble and uplifting universal values. offensive. rather than on priapic displays and foulm o u t h e d monkeys. would have had difficulty obtaining a Pullman berth or being seated in a dining car. deprived of both their African and their American heritage. W. were classified as Negroes. it is certainly understandable. although each of these classics contains some ideas that most living Americans find embarrassing. The editors of Freedom'sJournal were called "Free Africans. if transplanted across time and onto the Chattanooga Choo-Choo in 1945. Near-white individuals as fair-skinned as T h u r g o o d Marshall and Lena H o m e are still classified as Negroes. Rogers classified his pharaohs as black. and they were not amused by the spectacle of illiterate schoolboys insulting one another's mothers. These historical arguments do not. where nine out of every ten black Americans were slaves." but in reality they were quasi-free Americans. that . however.48 Academic Q u e s t i o n s / S p r i n g 1994 ward Wilmot Blyden. there were many universities in this country from which I was barred by force of law. Du Bois. who shamelessly exploit the fears and resentments of contemporary readers. It is a quaint. who were absolutely white in appearance. just for fun. excuse the excesses of a few atypical cult authors. and Marcus Garvey were committed to a civilizing mission. this insane reasoning remains the basis for classifying appreciable numbers of people as "black" despite their blue eyes and blond hair. In the schools and colleges that I did attend I was sometimes driven to the verge of tears by the cruelty of students and of teachers." neither is Twain's Huckleberry Finn. were written at a time when "one drop of Negro blood" was enough to make anyone a Negro. Even here it should be r e m e m b e r e d . which argued that the Egyptians were black. Walter White and Adam Clayton Powell. on "the best which has been thought and said in the world. universities. but no m o r e anachronistic than our society's residual racism. It was in the face of this illogic that the mulatto authorJ. Pauline Hopkins. however. Even today. or Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. or downright hateful. or Milton's Areopagitica. In fact many of the pharaohs. Leviticus is not "hate literature. As late as 1960. of course. fantastic r e m i n d e r of problems that our society has not yet solved." They were not cultural relativists. Their assertion that knowledge was deliberately kept from them was correct. It should be r e m e m b e r e d that the Afrocentric tradition grew up in antebellum America. the year I graduated from high school. and libraries. by persons who could b e c o m e apoplectic at the idea that the pharaohs were not white. Many people feel that at least this much can be said in behalf of Afrocentrism: that it focuses young minds on pyramids and temples. It is a born-again. is a charismatic. clearly o n e way to do it is by language. a n d barber shops. again an external term. it is an external term. true-believer enthusiasm. and pseudo-intellectuals. They do not have to live u n d e r the vicious. I want briefly to try to look at that. How did the African people see themselves? They saw themselves in a variety of ways. similar to "creation science. and slum-shocked classes of black Americans. we speak of the Yoruba. W h e n we use the terms "African" or "Afrocentric. their sewing circles. of course. Like most mythologies. the beginning. For example. Perhaps it is possible to r e d e e m Afrocentrism f r o m its m o d e r n misuse by racists. This mythology is no m o r e dangerous than the fictions associated with Betsy Ross. the answer is that it is n o t there. terrifying. It is extremely unlikely that Afrocentrism will gain m u c h o f a following a m o n g the establishmentarian black scholars. we speak of the Akan. It is n o t likely to be stopped by intellectual arguments or politically correct dogmas from the right or from the left. but mainly as m e m b e r s of a particular ethnic/cultural group. culturally deprived. T h e term "African" itself is n o t an indigenous term. O n e could discuss for- . it is only half believed a n d simply represents an attempt on the part of respectable. like Wilson Moses. Before it came into use. we speak o f the Z u l u . Louis Wilson: I want to discuss Africa and the Afrocentric m o v e m e n t because I think that many Afrocentrists--and there are many t y p e s . when you want to break Africa d o w n into its various c o m p o n e n t parts. It is essentially Latin. T h e r e could also be a b r e a k d o w n by region. But m o s t p e o p l e d o n o t go over the brink. H o n e s t Abe.s e e Africa as the foundation. or George Washington a n d the cherry tree. in their h o m e s and churches. I am certain o f o n e thing: Afrocentrism." a n d rationalized with the same sort o f evangelical passion. and clearly the key to that would have been language. and that is part of the culture. As a trained African historian. anti-Semites. honest people to create a positive folkmythology. W h e n you want to talk about u n d e r s t a n d i n g Africa. Most black Americans know Afrocentrism as a quaint. It is only with the arrival of the Europeans that these people were forced to begin to think of themselves as Africans.Symposium 49 otherwise harmless traditions of Afrocentrism are most likely to be perverted a m o n g the unlettered. we speak o f the Kamba. So.w e speak of people who speak a particular language. we speak of the Ga. folksy cultural tradition that they e n c o u n t e r f r o m early childhood. we speak of the Egyptians. we speak of the Tiv. n o t an intellectual m o v e m e n t . w h e n we ask where the Afrocentrism is in Africa. who constitute the faculties of the elite universities. the basis. in its m o r e disturbing and extremist forms." we need to keep in m i n d that they do n o t c o m e from the continent. humiliating conditions of Southern segregation and lynch law that drove George James over the brink during the early 1950s. Africans were often referred to by outsiders as Ethiopians. Perhaps not. Christianity was i n t r o d u c e d to the rest o f the c o n t i n e n t as late as the seventeenth century.000 people. you would n e e d to b e c o m e Krobo. there will be o t h e r p e o p l e in the same area who were d o m i n a t e d by the Asante a n d are anti-Asante. W h e n we talk with a great deal o f satisfaction about the ancient African empires. If you c a m e f r o m the Egbe.50 Academic Questions / Spring 1994 est civilizations. or central African peoples. not a pejorative one. you were m a d e to b e c o m e Krobo. I studied the history o f a particular Adangme-speaking p e o p l e in West Africa called the Krobo. it was created outside Africa. mainly by Europeans. If you c a m e into this society f r o m the Akan. northern African. W e k n o w that in the first t h r o u g h seventh centuries these areas were heavily d o m i n a t e d by Christian belief. Many o f these people got along. It is no d i f f e r e n t f r o m o t h e r parts o f the world. you were m a d e to bec o m e Krobo. We could talk about traditional African religions. which h a d s p r e a d across the Sudan by the eleventh century. that is using a descriptive term. because we k n o w f r o m historical. how o n e b e c o m e s a Krobo. eastern African. We are talking about a t h o u s a n d different languages. W h e n you talk about the rise o f the Zulu a n d Shaka. the ancient e m p i r e o f Mall. w h e n one refers to Ethiopians as p e o p l e with painted faces. w h e n you refer to a p e r s o n as an Asante. archeological. If you c a m e f r o m the Ga people. o r states or empires c r e a t e d along rivers o r in the desert. Color is n o t i m p o r t a n t w h e n we talk a b o u t the Sudan. the land o f the blacks. keep in m i n d that Shaka rose because he d o m i n a t e d his i m m e d i a t e neighbors. o f course. T h e Akan c r e a t e d an empire. But the c o n c e p t "black" ( m e a n i n g race) is not an African concept. Yet a n o t h e r way to think about Africans--how Africans o f t e n t i m e s think about themselves--has to do with religion. I tried to r e c o n s t r u c t the history o f this small-to-medium g r o u p o f about 200. W e are talking a b o u t a t h o u s a n d different culture groups. It is a descriptive term. O n e could talk a b o u t the areas in N o r t h a n d Northeast Africa w h e r e early Christianity h a d an impact. we could talk about Islam. This is i m p o r t a n t for the Afrocentrist a n d others. you w o u l d transform. and people f r o m the coast. . But even these religions are n o t monolithic. o n e n e e d s to k e e p in m i n d that. T h e question that interested m e was how o n e b e c o m e s part o f a c o m m u n i t y . O n e has to recognize that these empires rose a n d fell as empires did in all parts o f the world. relative to Europe. So the e n v i r o n m e n t furnishes a n o t h e r way o f classifying people. s o u t h e r n African. T h e r e are people f r o m the grasslands. And. but empires are not c r e a t e d f r o m m u t u a l a g r e e m e n t . A n o t h e r a p p r o a c h is to talk about western African. a n d o n e o f the things that I realized was that everyone who c a m e into this society w o u l d transform. Similarly. a n d anthropological records that most o f those we today call African-Americans in the British N o r t h A m e r i c a n colonies o r the U n i t e d States c a m e f r o m what we call West Africa. p e o p l e f r o m the forests. T h e same is true for the ancient Ghanians. G h a n a h a d its particular needs. w h e n E u r o p e a n colonial rule came. or the works o f the G r e e k philosophers. b o t h in general and in particular. w h e n we look at Afrocentrism. because it didn't affect t h e m directly. w h e r e does it c o m e from? Essentially it c o m e s f r o m the U n i t e d States. there is no biological sense o f unity. geography. despite his so-called d o c u m e n t a tion. o r any o t h e r region did n o t rise up as a unified nation. the Egyptians" [158]." If you w a n t e d to be a Krobo. T h e Akan society is also inclusive. but the Black people o f N o r t h Africa. You had to give up y o u r dietary habits. a n d literacy all were factors.M. w h e n the various African nations b e g a n to gain i n d e p e n d e n c e . East Africa. with copious r e f e r e n c e s to ancient source materials a n d m o d e r n historical studies. T h e Akkans saw themselves as Akkan. A n d finally. T h e message o f Stolen Legacy is sensational and revolutionary: "the Greeks were not the authors o f Greek philosophy. the Africans in West Africa. has b e e n a best-seller a m o n g peoples o f African d e s c e n t in this country." it is Krobo. the Nigerians had their particular needs. Similarly. Within those countries ethnicity. N o r t h Africa. I n d e e d there a r e . Stolen Legacy. James. That does not exist o n the continent. But no artifact is associated with any sense o f unity. So. This is n o t "African. a n d the people in Kenya had theirs. a n d there are reasons why. particularly after G h a n a did in 1957. they admit others into their society.Symposium 51 These were n o t "Africans. Mary R. that is. . I shall try to describe the origin o f the n o t i o n o f a "Stolen Legacy" a n d to suggest why James. You h a d to give up y o u r religion.l a n g u a g e and o t h e r cultural artifacts-a n d we should u n d e r s t a n d w h e r e those artifacts c o m e from. T h a t does n o t m e a n that there are not artifacts f r o m Africa o n the m a i n l a n d in the U n i t e d States. I have no p r o b l e m with that. c a n n o t provide scholarly u n d e r p i n n i n g for his sensational claims. W h e n colonial rule c a m e to Ghana. individual nations r e s p o n d e d in different ways. because it appears to be laid o u t in an i n f o r m e d a n d scholarly fashion. there is no cultural sense o f unity. A f r o c e n t r i s m has no m a j o r position in c o n t e m p o r a r y Africa. Finally. you h a d to accept their values. You h a d to give up y o u r language. religion. but we n e e d to be clear about it. A n y o n e who has studied ancient Mediterr a n e a n history will realize immediately that these assertions are u n t r u e . Lefkowitz: Since its publication in 1954. It did not h a p p e n with the Atlantic slave trade. the o t h e r African nations did n o t rise up in opposition. T h e r e is no ethnic sense o f unity. James's a r g u m e n t seems coh e r e n t a n d plausible. by G e o r g e G. But to a n y o n e unfamiliar with Egyptian or G r e e k history. but there is a process o f a c c o m m o d a t i o n that has to occur. w h e n Egypt was colonized. the o t h e r African nations d i d n ' t rise up in opposition. a n d the K r o b o saw themselves as Krobo. n o r did it exist in West Africa as a region. we n e e d to keep in m i n d that. there is no mutual language for c o m m u n i c a t i o n . would have sought to revise their rituals a n d the notions of their own history in light of the new information about Egypt that became available after the deciphering of hieroglyphics. R o m a n poet Virgil's Aeneid. although in fact they were neither. who purports to be writing an academic book. the Egyptian goddess Isis assumes a particular importance in his work. as well as in works derived f r o m it. who claim descent from ancient black Egyptians.52 Academic Questions/Spring 1994 The basic premise of James's a r g u m e n t is that Greek philosophy is based directly on an "Egyptian Mystery System.c. by Godfrey Higgins. Like Mozart. based on ancient sources that are distinctively Greek or Greco-Roman and date from the early centuries A. the novel S~thos by the Abb~ Jean Terrasson. T h e Masons. In particular. who died in 1833. The vision of a black Egypt p u t forth by James is in fact idiosyncratic to African-American Masons. In fact the earliest descriptions of "mysteries'--that is. but on the description. But James. with large libraries and art galleries. in 1836. in his Latin novel The Golden Ass. it had a p r o f o u n d influence on portrayals of Egyptian religion in later literature. not on any Egyptian source. which I can present here only in outline. Terrasson also relies heavily on the second-century Apuleius' account. the initiation of Terrasson's h e r o into the Egyptian priesthood served as the inspiration for Masonic rituals. who never p r e t e n d e d to be serious scholars. in the firstcentury B.D. But in reality the notion of an Egyptian Mystery System is a relatively m o d e r n fiction. T h e twelve-day initiation into the Mysteries of Isis that he describes is based primarily. initiation rituals--and academies for Egyptian priests." which was copied by Greek philosophers who studied in Egypt. first occur." another distinctive feature of the Masonic Order. and cites Masonic literature. when these rituals were established. King of Egypt and The Magic Flute. It would be unreasonable to expect that the Masons. James seems to have been inspired by Masonic ritual. All authentic information about early Egyptian religion was inaccessible to them. n o t in any ancient text. Nonetheless. in the libretto of Mozart's Magic Flute. such as Mozart's Thamos. The "Egyptian" rituals described by Terrasson and his F r e e m a s o n followers were actually Greco-Roman. H o w these fundamentally Greek practices came to be u n d e r s t o o d as originally Egyptian is a fascinating story. Terrasson's novel was widely read. But the portrayal of Isis and her cult on which Terrasson relies is distinctively Greco-Roman in character. but in an eighteenth-century French work o f historical fiction. first published in 1732. because the d o c u m e n t s that described it could not be read. r e g a r d e d t h e m as b o t h ancient and Egyptian. for example. Since Terrasson was forced to rely on Greek and Latin literature for his description of Egypt. instead of concentrating on what is now known about Egyptian myth and ritual. ought to have taken recent discoveries about Egypt into consideration. o f his initiation into the R o m a n cult o f Isis. of the hero Aeneas' visit to the lower world. in the eighteenth century. he speaks of Egyptian "Grand Lodges. several years b e f o r e the p u b l i c a t i o n o f the definitive version o f J e a n Franqois . James cites Anacalypsis (or "Revelation"). of the Egyptian Mystery System have c o m e down to us because it was secret. and it is these ersatz Egyptian rituals that are the models for the impressive "Egyptian" rituals. In order to show that Greek philosophy was based on Egyptian philosophy. most ironically. If the great Greek philosophers had stolen their ideas from the Egyptians. Higgins argues vigorously against C h a m p o l l i o n a n d even claims that the Rosetta Stone. In Stolen Legacy James likewise insists that no records. says that Socrates never went outside of Athens except when he participated in a military campaign in Greece. in its details.Symposium 53 Champollion's deciphering of hieroglyphics. in any language. described by the French writer Terrasson. as described in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. the rituals that late ancient writers identified as Egyptian are basically Greek. That James cites Higgins rather than a m o r e authoritative and m o d e r n source (although he knows about Champollion) is an indication of the hostility he bears toward Greek civilization. . the Egyptians believed in the immortality of the soul. As it is. even t h o u g h no ancient writer says so. James insists that Socrates and Aristotle must also have gone there.James admits that there is no close resemblance. However. which directly and indirectly served as inspiration for the Masons. Since it would not suit his purpose. Since other philosophers studied in Egypt (though ancient writers are completely inexplicit about what they learned there). which is. a close contemporary. James needs to show how philosophy was b r o u g h t to Greece f r o m Egypt. specifically European. we would expect James to provide texts showing frequent verbal parallels. of course. Here he can derive s u p p o r t from ancient Greek sources stating that certain important Greek philosophers studied in Egypt. the "Egyptian Mystery System" described by James is not African. Aristotle wrote a treatise On the Soul. In fact. He was. completely wrong. but essentially Greek.t h a t Egyptian writing could never be d e c i p h e r e d because it was a secret system. o n which Champollion's deciphering was based. explanation for the absence of records. Thus. he can point only to some general similarities between Egyptian religious ideas and Greek theories. anyone who looks at a translation of the Book of the Dead can see that it is not a philosophical treatise. James argues that silence about the presence in Egypt of Socrates and Aristotle is p r o o f of a conspiracy by the Greeks to conceal f r o m posterity the extent of their debt to Egypt. o f course. the same evidence of silence has led other scholars to the natural conclusion that neither of t h e m actually ever went there. Higgins a r g u e d . was a forgery.i n v a i n . but rather a series of ritual prescriptions to ensure the soul's passage to the next world. as James asserts. that no such system ever existed. James does n o t m e n t i o n the other. As we have seen. and. because Aristotle's theory is only a "very small portion" of the Egyptian "philosophy" o f the soul. O f course. and m o r e obvious. Nothing could be m o r e different from Aristotle's abstract consideration o f the nature of the soul. Plato. But there the similarity ends. ON THE BELFRY Anna Balakian. alas. confronts the "current zeitgeist" in contemporary literary studies: the importance assumed by criticism and its devalorization of the literary work. Dogma and Disquietude in the Critical Arena ByAnna Balakian 288 pages. which. as has always been thought.54 Academic Q u e s t i o n s / S p r i n g 1994 I have treated only a few of the many fraudulent claims m a d e in Stolen Legacy.C. Such misinformation entitles Stolen Legacy to a place on the shelf with other hate literature.95 INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS ~ At bookstores. James misrepresents history in this way in order to depict the ancient Greeks as a quarrelsome and chaotic people. for example. Many m o r e examples could be produced. that the battles o f Marathon and Salamis were indecisive. cloth $39. in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. one of Comparative Literature's leading scholars. influential "myths" in recent history. James insists that the Greeks did n o t win their war against Persia in 490 and 480-79 B. and. A n d it is distinctly frightening that school children are being taught to believe that this myth is true. But it also deserves to be rated as one of the most successful. such as The Secret Relationship Between Blacks anclJews.. incapable of p r o d u c i n g philosophy. the use and misuse of literary texts for ideological purposes. or call 1-800-842-6796 . according to James. but states. "requires an e n v i r o n m e n t which is free f r o m disturbance and worries" [24]. relativism and anthropomorphism: and multiculturalism and the sociological approach to the arts.
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