Verified Document

Black Athena First, Discuss Your Overall Thoughts Essay

Black Athena First, discuss your overall thoughts on the controversial Black Athena theory, and discuss the extent to which you think this theory holds weight (be specific: avoid empty answers like "I totally agree" or "this theory is stupid").

The theory itself is reasonable. That is, Bernal's critique of earlier historians and their failure to recognize the tremendous cultural influence of North Africa, noted by the ancient Greeks themselves, on Greece in their study of Greek history. However, much of the support that Bernal gives, regarding the presence of Greco-African contacts are not directly relevant to his major claim that the Greeks originated in Africa. The revelation of African contact and influence on ancient Greece during the Iron Age, though a valuable contribution to our understanding of the region, is not in itself sufficient to prove the origin of the Greek people.

Overall, Bernal's study is interesting and provocative. Also, the thesis is actually very solid. I believe that it is the book's provocative title which is responsible for the controversy surrounding it. The title is meant to be sensationalistic, perhaps in order to sell books.

Next, consider the history of Egypt in light of African history: do you consider Egypt to be historically and culturally as "African"...

Academically, it is a reaction to Eurocentrism in the study of history. However, it also grows out of the unique race-relations of the United States. It is a product of a larger African-American emergence from injustice and misinformation. Because of the political dimension of Afrocentric history, many historians and scholars try to do too much with their findings.
Many of the impressions that scholars had of Africa and African history were informed by the unique relationship between "Africans" and whites. Thomas Jefferson, for example, made evaluations of the African intellect based off of a pitifully small sample size, his own slaves. For example, African-Americans originated from Western Africa. The Africa that Bernal discusses as "Black" is Northeastern Africa and the Middle East, separated from the West African centres of civilization by the vast Sahara. (Illike, 52). To lump these two centers of civilization into the term "Africa" is to gloss over the uniqueness of the West African civilizations, which are impressive in their own right. (Levtzion, 80).

Ironically, by treating Africa as a neat, monolithic historical unit, Bernal actually reinforces the…

Sources used in this document:
Bibliography

Iliffe, John. Africans: The History of a Continent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print.

Levtzion, Nehemia; Hopkins, John F.P. eds. And trans. (2000), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa, New York, NY: Marcus Weiner.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Black Studies - Philosophy the
Words: 513 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

The "philosophy" in the sense allow us to carefully reflect and conscientiously revise our outlook. The person who holds such a worldview can be said to be critically present in his or her culture, society, and political community and to be truly educated. The philosophy raises several questions about human existence, their aim, and human minds. An attempt to unify these various analyses into a comprehensive and consistent understanding of reality is

Black Studies African-Americans Are African-Americans
Words: 1227 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

The size of the black middle class has increased considerably, and research reveals that there is a steady improvement in the attitudes of whites. And yet negative racial stereotypes continue to cause subtle discrimination which influences how people view and treat each other. It is thought that almost two-thirds of the U.S. population growth over the next 50 years will come from immigrant families which will make race and

Black Studies -- Research Issues Wittenbrink, J.F.
Words: 580 Length: 2 Document Type: Dissertation or Thesis complete

Black Studies -- Research Issues Wittenbrink, J.F. Judd, B., and Park, M. P "Spontaneous prejudice in context: Variability in automatically activated attitudes." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 81, No. 5 (2001): 815-827. Quantitative Approach The quantitative approach to this research question would collect data in the form of the numerical breakdown of responses. It would consider questions such as the relative percentages of subjects who expressed various positions or exhibited various responses

Black Studies the Health Belief
Words: 634 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

While all of these do not exist in each behavioral change, but there are specific principles that must be applied for the behavioral change to be effective and long lasting. One population-based application of TTM is quitting smoking, which is difficult for anyone who smokes, just as most cessation models are difficult. Creating an effective way to quite smoking for entire populations would save lives and millions of dollars in

Black Studies Hip-Hop Is More
Words: 713 Length: 2 Document Type: Research Proposal

Beachum & McCray (2004) point out that the media is the primary means of information dissemination for youth, and portrayals of hip-hop culture in the media is highly likely to influence African-American youth. The research will first analyze the content of hip-hop music, videos, and club culture to count instances of misogynistic or stereotypical gender roles. Ayana (2009) points out that women are portrayed as sexual objects, prostitutes, and also

Black Studies - Philosophy/Morality Philosophy:
Words: 1704 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

However, our modern perspective and appreciation of objective moral concepts and standards allows us to extract the most beneficial core elements of various religions. At their root, the most fundamental religious principles are much more similar to modern secular moral beliefs than dissimilar and they do not conflict at all with mutual respect and consideration among private religious values and beliefs that may differ substantially.. Ultimately, it is the

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now