Culture

1. Culture Evolves Through Exchange and Recovery

Culture, for these figures, is made not only from the resources of one community but also from encounters with other cultures.

Culture is not static. It's a dynamic process shaped by interactions, borrowings, and adaptations across different societies and eras. The book challenges the notion of culture as a fixed property, instead highlighting its fluid nature. Examples include:

• Xuanzang, the Chinese traveler, bringing Buddhist manuscripts from India.
• Arab scholars translating Greek philosophy.
• Wole Soyinka integrating Yoruba traditions with Greek tragedy.

Recovery and reinterpretation. Culture also evolves through the rediscovery and reinterpretation of lost or forgotten traditions. The Italian Renaissance, for instance, was fueled by the recovery of classical manuscripts. These recoveries often lead to innovation as new generations project their concerns onto the past.

Messy and interesting. The author argues that the most compelling cultural narratives arise from far-flung influences brought together through contact, innovation driven by broken traditions, and recovered shards. This process isn't always pretty, but it's the only one we've got.

2. The Power of Writing and Memory Techniques

Cultural storage and transmission require humans to accomplish the work of storing knowledge and passing it on to the next generation by means other than DNA.

Beyond biological evolution. Humans have developed cultural techniques, such as language and writing, to transmit information and skills across generations. This process is infinitely faster than biological evolution and has allowed humans to become a dominant species.

Writing as a storage technology. The development of writing systems, from Mesopotamian cuneiform to the Greek alphabet, has revolutionized cultural transmission. Writing has led to the creation of institutions like libraries, schools, and scriptoria, dedicated to preserving and disseminating knowledge.

Oral traditions persist. Despite the rise of writing, oral traditions and informal knowledge networks continue to play a significant role in cultural transmission. These methods of memorization and storytelling provide a second, vital method of passing knowledge down to the next generation.

3. Monotheism's Murky Origins: Influence and Erasure

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Aten and Judaism. The book explores the possible connections between Akhenaten's Aten cult and the development of monotheism in Judaism. While the Aten cult was short-lived and ultimately rejected, it represents an early experiment in monotheistic thought.

Borrowing and adaptation. The author argues that the question of direct borrowing is less important than how cultures adapt and transform ideas from others. What the Jewish exiles made of the Aten experiment, if they encountered it at all, is utterly distinct from it and deserves to be remembered as a great achievement regardless.

Erasure and memory. The story of Nefertiti and Akhenaten highlights the ways in which cultures can deliberately erase or distort the past. Their names were deleted from king lists, and their city was abandoned. However, this erasure also paradoxically helped preserve their story for future generations.

4. Art as a Reflection of Belief and Power

The Akhetaten revolution shows that in the distant past, and indeed in many of today’s societies, making meaning is an exercise in orientation that involves fundamental questions that cut across neatly distinguished areas of art and belief.

Art and religion intertwined. The Akhetaten revolution in Egypt demonstrates the close relationship between art and religion as allied forms of meaning-making. Visual representation, in ancient Egypt, was by no means unchanging, there had been a remarkable degree of continuity over hundreds of years.

Visual communication. Egyptian painting and sculpture were not naturalistic but closer to writing, a highly abstract system of visual communication. Hieroglyphics, after all, were standardized images that stood for ideas and combinations of sounds, so Egyptians were used to reading paintings, reliefs, and statues symbolically.

Art and power. The new artistic style promoted by Nefertiti and Akhenaten was also bound up with their assertion of power. They presented themselves as sole intermediaries between their god, Aten, and everyone else. The new images helped establish Aten as a new god, but also as a new kind of god, which meant that Aten, too, required a new form of visual depiction.

5. The Perils and Promises of Cultural Grafting

Captive Greece captured the savage conqueror and brought the arts to rustic Latium.

Rome's cultural debt to Greece. The Roman Empire, despite its military dominance, adopted much of Greek culture, including literature, theater, and religion. This cultural grafting led to a unique synthesis of Roman and Greek traditions.

Virgil's Aeneid. Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid, is a prime example of cultural grafting. Virgil drew on Homeric models to create a new Roman origin story, connecting Rome to the Trojan War and establishing a sense of continuity with the Greek past.

The art of the graft. The Roman infatuation with all things Greek was surprising since the Greeks themselves, even at the height of their power, had shown relatively little interest in other cultures. The Roman use of Greek culture seems to upend our intuition about military power and its relation to cultural imports.

6. The Double-Edged Sword of Cultural Preservation

It’s not so easy to get rid of the past, even though we keep trying. The past lies buried underground, sometimes for thousands of years, waiting to be dug up again.

Destruction and preservation. The destruction of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius paradoxically preserved the city under a layer of ash, providing a snapshot of Roman life. This highlights the complex relationship between destruction and preservation.

The fragility of cultural transmission. The landslide at Chauvet cave is a reminder of the fragility of cultural transmission, which usually depends on a continuous line of communication from one generation to the next. Unlike biological evolution, which moves slowly but preserves adaptive changes more permanently in DNA, cultural transmission depends on human-made memory and teaching techniques.

The role of chance. The survival of cultural objects and practices often depends on chance events, such as natural disasters or the decisions of individuals. The Nefertiti bust, for example, was preserved because it was carefully placed in a storeroom and sealed with a wall.

7. Monasticism: Havens of Knowledge and Innovation

I have ordered this edict on Dharma inscribed in order that it may endure forever.

Monasteries as cultural centers. Monasteries, particularly Benedictine monasteries in Europe, played a crucial role in preserving and transmitting knowledge during the Middle Ages. They served as libraries, scriptoria, and centers of learning.

Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard of Bingen, a Benedictine nun, exemplifies the innovative potential of monastic life. She combined religious devotion with scientific inquiry, writing on medicine, botany, and music.

The limits of preservation. While monasteries preserved much of classical learning, they also selectively filtered and interpreted it through a Christian lens. This highlights the ways in which cultural transmission is always shaped by the values and beliefs of the transmitting culture.

8. Colonialism's Impact on Cultural Identity

The willful erasure of Nefertiti, Akhenaten, and their god, and the abandonment of their city, paradoxically also helped preserve it.

Colonialism and cultural appropriation. The book explores the destructive aspects of cultural encounters, particularly those brought about by European colonialism. Colonial powers often sought to extract labor and resources, including cultural ones, from colonized populations.

Resistance and resilience. Despite the violence and exploitation that accompanied colonialism, cultures under assault developed strategies of resistance and resilience. These strategies demonstrate the rapid pace of cultural adaptation as opposed to the painfully slow course of biological evolution.

The legacy of colonialism. The history of colonialism continues to shape cultural identities and power dynamics today. Debates over originality, appropriation, and access to culture are often rooted in the legacy of colonial exploitation.

9. The Enduring Power of Foundational Stories

The main lesson from cultural history is that we need engagement with the past, and with one another, for cultures to reach their full potential, despite the errors, incomprehension, and destruction that often accompany such engagement.

Foundational myths. Cultures often create foundational stories to explain their origins and values. These stories, such as the myth of Romulus and Remus in Rome or the Kebra Nagast in Ethiopia, provide a sense of shared identity and purpose.

The Kebra Nagast. The Kebra Nagast, an Ethiopian text, tells the story of how the Ark of the Covenant was stolen from Jerusalem and brought to Ethiopia. This story serves to connect Ethiopia to a Jewish dynasty and to shift the religious center of gravity from Jerusalem to Aksum.

Strategic borrowing. The Kebra Nagast is an example of strategic borrowing, in which a culture appropriates elements from another culture to enhance its own prestige and legitimacy. This process often involves reinterpreting or distorting the borrowed elements to fit the needs of the borrowing culture.

Last updated: April 3, 2025