Southernization and Westernization

When it comes to history, there are two remarkable and obvious ways in which it shifts. The more obvious example is when new facts emerge and thus the narrative of what happened during a given time period changes. Another, but less obvious example, is when the perceptions and considerations about a given time period change even though the basic facts remain unchanged. The latter has absolutely happened when it comes to the post-classical era, which ran from 500 to 1450 CE. When looking at the more modern treatises and authors when it comes to that era, it is clear that the perceptions and prisms have changed. While much of what has been established and decided prior about the post-classical era has changed, there is much that has changed in a marked, although not unanimous, fashion.

One way of thinking that has clearly changed, and that will be described here, is the lexicon and terminology of that time period. Indeed, the lexicon and how it is crafted and employed gives many firm clues as to what historians and other scholars are thinking about the time period in question. One term that typifies and clarifies this is southernization. This refers to the movement that started in Southern Asia and then extended around the rest of the world. It had its genesis with the Gupta kings in the fifth century CE and happened within the same environment and realm as the Muslim caliphates that were occurring at the same time. It is now attested and asserted that this process started in 500 and then continued to 1300, at which point it seemingly laid the groundwork for westernization and came to pass from 1300 CE to the present. Indeed, Lynda Shafer from Turfs University describes Southernization and westernization as being analogous. The latter of those two terms refers to certain developments that first occurred in Western Europe. Indeed, the advent and emergence of exploration and colonization led to the spread of a singular culture or set of cultures around the world. Indeed, the spread of the cultures endemic and native to the Southern parts of Asia did much the same thing from 500 to 1300 CE [footnoteRef:1]. Another part of the lexicon and vernacular that is shifting is the use of period titles and conventions, with the post-classical era being a good example. Obvious, there are trends and examples that are specific to certain eras in history. However, speaking with too broad a brush and keeping things too high-level just helps to get things wrong and it disregards outliers and variations during certain periods. Periodization, as it is called by Peter Stearns, is potentially problematic because more alternate and different ways of giving summaries and reviews of certain eras is necessary so as to keep things as information-filled and accurate as possible. It is also important to make it clear when theory and conjecture are in play and why alternate theories that are nonetheless present are not mentioned or accepted as firmly [footnoteRef:2]. [1: Shafer, Lynda. 2017. "Southernization." Hawaii.Edu. http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/journals/jwh/jwh051p001.pdf.] [2: Stearns, Peter N. 1987. "Periodization In World History Teaching: Identifying The Big Changes." The History Teacher 20 (4): 561. doi:10.2307/493757.]

It is important to note what other historians have to say about this same topic and lexicon in the most modern context and frame of debate. More importantly, it is important to compare and contrast what is said about the subject as the scope and direction of debate is certainly not monolithic. Indeed, Xinru Liu weighed in on this topic and was able to point out an example of the other kind of way mentioned before that causes perceptions and review of history to change, that being new facts coming to light. Indeed, the Silk Road that existed in Asia was not obvious and apparent until much more recently than when other facts became obvious and apparent. The varying and inconsistent path of the Silk Road fed into this complexity and difficulty in finding the history. Further, Liu's treatise on this subject is not even a decade old as of the writing of this brief research report. Such discoveries like this can and will shape and change what is presumed or known about history up to the point of the newly found information [footnoteRef:3]. [3: Liu, Xinru. 2010. The Silk Road In World History. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.]

It is apparent to see just from the above that the facts matter when it comes to the consideration, pondering and summarizing of history. However, the precision and tactics that are used to do the same matter a great deal as well. Painting with too broad a brush leads to the facts being muddled or even ignored but this does not mean that broad statements cannot be made. Indeed, the broad effects of Southernization/Westernization are without question and they are seen to this very day. At the same time, a lot of other effects, patterns and trends happened in either brief pockets of time or over the same long time horizons and those must not be omitted from the discussion or just glossed over for the sake of stifling debate or ignoring what provably (or what likely) happened.

Bibliography

Liu, Xinru. 2010. The Silk Road In World History. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Shafer, Lynda. 2017. "Southernization." Hawaii.Edu. http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/journals/jwh/jwh051p001.pdf.

Stearns, Peter N. 1987. "Periodization In World History Teaching: Identifying The Big Changes." The History Teacher 20 (4): 561. doi:10.2307/493757.