Who owns the past?

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

I have to do an essay in Archaeology on 'who owns the past'

so what do you people think?

[Liberal Kid]

Well it would depend on what you mean by history.

The history that I receive is owned by Western civilization and is always based on American and European countries as the center of the world.

Point and fact the Black Death or the Bubonic Plague began in Eastern countries. It killed more people in the Eastern countries then it did in Europe. Yet I was NEVER taught this and never would have been had not my teacher tried to be as unbiased and liberal as possible in his teachings.

History is owned by whoever writes it, which is generally the victors.

[which doctor]

To the victors, go the history books.

[Tekun]

Originally posted by [email protected] 01, 2007 02:23 am
To the victors, go the history books.
True that....

If I were you, I'd write the paper (with the instructors approval) on how mainstream history is basically European history according to most textbooks, and how the history of non-European ppl is overlook and ignored

[Kropotkin Has a Posse]

Is the question about who owns the past or who should own the past?

[ComradeOm]

Originally posted by Liberal [email protected] 01, 2007 02:18 am
Point and fact the Black Death or the Bubonic Plague began in Eastern countries. It killed more people in the Eastern countries then it did in Europe. Yet I was NEVER taught this and never would have been had not my teacher tried to be as unbiased and liberal as possible in his teachings.
Which of course begs the question of just where you live. The primary reason that I received little education in Asian history is probably a lot more to do with the fact that I don't live in Asia, and events there had negligible impact on European history, than any Eurocentric academic conspiracy.

Of course in that specific example you raise, the Black Death had a massive and far reaching impact on European history. The social upheaval in affected areas was enormous. It can be argued that this directly contributed to the process that led to global European domination. Were its effects on Asian society of the same magnitude?

[Liberal Kid]

I know that more people died and we don't learn about it because our education in America is Eurocentric if it doesn't directly affect us we don't care I guess.

The fact is that it is history and in my freshman adv world history class (in high school).

We scarcely learned about anything non European related. Even in my current 20th century history class the class is still focused on Europe and then how other countries affected the European countries. We never learn about their governments only when a European powered mingled with them.

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

Originally posted by [email protected] 01, 2007 03:43 am
Is the question about who owns the past or who should own the past?
Who does own the past is the question i have been given... its pretty vague <_<

I argued that no one owns the past at all, that we all do, and the acts of one Nation can affect another so the concept of studying a single nations&#39; history is foolish as you will invairably touch upon the history of another.

[ComradeOm]

Originally posted by Liberal [email protected] 01, 2007 08:29 pm
I know that more people died and we don&#39;t learn about it because our education in America is Eurocentric if it doesn&#39;t directly affect us we don&#39;t care I guess.
Well... duh. Children are taught their own history. I doubt that Chinese children are learning a great deal about the Irish plantations. Damned Sino-centralism

[Black Dagger]

History and &#39;the past&#39; are two distinct things; it&#39;s impossible to &#39;own&#39; &#39;the past&#39;, but its certainly popular to create history in the interests of the status quo, the elites and so forth.

[Organic Revolution]

History is written by the victors, the real history dies in the battle fields.

[Fawkes]

Check out the quote in my signature by Kevin Toolis.

[The Author]

Who owns the past?

Well, whatever class is ruling, they are the ones who write the history, and "own" the past. The aristocracy praise monarchies and religious theocracies and the like. The bourgeoisie praise capitalism and bourgeois parliamentary democracy, and tend to write mostly in favor of this social system. The working class favors socialism and communism, and class struggles against the oppressor classes.

[Chicano Shamrock]

Originally posted by Modern Life is [email protected] 01, 2007 01:58 pm
Who does own the past is the question i have been given... its pretty vague <_<

I argued that no one owns the past at all, that we all do,
I don&#39;t think that is true. Mainstream history is owned by the victors. Like George Orwell said "Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present, controls the past". It means whoever is in power right now owns the history books and owns how history is positioned. If the USA is in power than the history books will say that the Vietnamese were trying to threaten America by going red. They will say there were no carpet bombings of Laos and Cambodia. They will say that Nicaraguans would have came to texas and killed everyone if the US didn&#39;t go to Nicaragua and kill them.