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Culture 1. Islam East Asia Europe. 1500-1780. High Culture. In the early modern period throughout the world, culture was driven by social elites The line between high culture and popular culture was very clear – though they borrowed from each other in unexpected ways
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Culture 1 Islam East Asia Europe 1500-1780
High Culture • In the early modern period throughout the world, culture was driven by social elites • The line between high culture and popular culture was very clear – though they borrowed from each other in unexpected ways • The acceleration of trade in this period inspired cultural producers across the world to forge new cultural identities that incorporated both tradition and innovation
The uses of culture • Cultural production tends to reflect and reinforce the desires and aspirations either of the dominant class, or a class of people who are trying to assert their dominance • Your textbook labels many of these cultures as syncretic; that is, they bring together different and sometimes contradictory elements into one distinct culture
The Islamic World • The Islamic dynasties all drew from the Arabic traditions of Islam – but those traditions were incorporated into vastly different ways in Turkey, Persia, and India • Thus those shared core beliefs (drawn from the Koran and Arabian life in the time of Mohammed) always mixed with other cultural infuluences
Ottoman culture • Though it borrows from Arabic and Persian cultures, its roots are in Turkish culture • The Ottomans assimilated many of the cultural forms of the people they conquered, especially the Byzantine Greeks – thus incorporated elements of that into their own cultural mosaic • It is truly a syncretic culture
Dancing was an important cultural institution in the Ottoman court. This image represents women and children dancing in the harem.
Today we tend to associate the tulip with Holland, but the tradition of cultivating tulips and using them as an image in art originated with the Turks centuries before the ascendancy of the Ottoman Dynasty.
Safavid culture • The Safavids drew not only on Arab culture (particularly Shia Islam) but on the ancient culture of Persia • Particularly under Shah Abbas (ruled 1587-1629) there was an intense promotion of Persian culture that promoted Shia orthodoxy and reverence for the Safavid Dynasty • Much more inward-looking and resistant to outside cultural influences
The entrance to the Shah Abbas mosque in Esfehan reflected both Arabic and Persian influences, and was meant to display the splendour of the Safavid shahs.
Mughal Culture • A broad and open culture drawing from a multitude of cultural influences • Like the Ottomans, the Mughlas appropriated cultural forms from the people they conquered • Families that had grown wealthy from accelerated trade channelled part of their new-found riches on establishing themselves as cultural patrons
The Taj Mahal, built between 1630 and 1650 as a mausoleum for the deceased wife of Shah Jahan, represents the union of Arabic, Persian, and Indian elements into one unified form.
Chinese culture • Traditional Chinese culture valued learning and philosophy and was very inward-looking; they strived to keep foreign influence at bay • As the Chinese economy boomed in the early modern period, so too did its cultural life -- vastly enlarging the market for consumers of art, books and literature, and ideas • China had long had a high literacy rate and dissemination of ideas using printing
One way Chinese officials controlled learning was to have a very strict list of official books that formed the basis of Civil Service exams • Since these strenuous exams were the key to a career, people took the study of official books seriously, having little time or interest in other forms of learning A group of scholars awaits the results of the civil service exams
Chinese cultural practices reflected the fact that China was a very hierarchal society, based on family lineage, class, age, and perhaps more fundamentally, by gender. The practice of foot-binding kept women powerless, crippled, and subservient to their husbands. The Manchus tried to put a stop to the practice, but the practice was widespread in China well into the 20th century.
Culture in Japan • In Tokoguawa Japan Chinese influence began to be challenged by European goods and fashions, despite attempts of Shoguns to isolate Japan from that influence • Ancestor worship and Shintoism, both ancient Japanese traditions, mixed with Chinese Confucianism, Buddhism – in a very stratified and ordered society
Kabuki theatres emerged in the 17th century as a new type of satirical drama combining song, dance, and elaborate costumes and make-up as a form of entertainment for urban inhabitants. The original Kabuki plays were performed by women (who played both make and female roles.
European Culture • While European culture was largely influenced by the Italian Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries, in the 17th and 18th centuries France and Britain were the cultural leaders • In both cases philosophers and thinkers were witnessing incredible advances in human knowledge
English culture • Since the 16th century, England had been home to a tradition of empiricism – an approach to science that emphasized observation of natural phenomena • This approach was based on the belief that the world runs according to a set of laws that human beings could understand and use to their advantage
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is known as the father of British Empiricism. He encouraged his readers to abandon medieval traditions of inquiry based on logic to one based on observation and sharing of collected data John Locke (1632-1704) built on that tradition, arguing that human beings were born as ‘blank slates’ and perceived the world through the senses
Isaac Newton’s (1643-1727) major achievements include: • Three laws of motion • Law of universal gravitation • Invention of calculus • These three achievements were so profound because they had practical applications in a number of areas – from understanding the nature of the universe to making parts for machinery
French culture • In France the major intellectual figures were renowned for a philosophical approach known as rationalism which focused on the use of human reason to solve complex problems • In the 18th century France was renowned for its philosophes who championed the cause that human reason could solve all of the world’s problems
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) laid the foundations for the modern scientific method, though his approach relied on logical reasoning rather than the sense-based approach of the empiricists Voltaire (1694-1778) was a strong promoter of English empiricism in France during the Enlightenment, and heralded the triumph of human reason over superstition
The commodification of culture • The economic wave that Europeans were riding was based on the production and consumption of commodities • Thus the commodities themselves begin to play a larger role in the cultural life of Europe • Goods from far away are now available to a (still potential) mass market • In other words, economic exchange relies on cultural interactions
Europeans adopted the tulip as a marker of status and experienced “tulip mania”. The Semper Augustus variety sold for as much as a luxurious house in Amsterdam in 1637.
Conclusion • All of the cultures we have looked at today were in some way the result of how elite people chose to reflect their view of the world to their subjects • The acceleration of global trade raised questions in all of these cultures about their identity • Some looked to their past for guidance, while others looked among their conquered people or foreigners for new models
