Does Studying Antiquity Make Society More Racist? Some American professors believe it



Marble sculpture of the head of Emperor Septimius Severus dating from the beginning of the 3rd century AD, originally from Markouna (Algeria). – Charlotte Lepetoukha / Louvre Museum

  • Several ancient American researchers believe that the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, their teaching but also the reappropriations which are made of them, favor “white domination”.
  • The controversy has not yet reached France where the university system and the relationship to ancient worlds are very different from the United States.
  • Questions concerning the racism of ancient Greek and Roman societies, and the political uses which are made of them, have been dealt with for some time now by scholars.

A fundamental controversy is agitating at the moment the world of antiques. For some time now, in the United States and Canada, researchers from the departments of Classics – name given to the study of history and ancient languages ​​- call into question the ancient Greek and Roman societies as well as their teaching. For these researchers, the teaching of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds would favor “white domination” (“ whiteness ») Of yesterday and today. The controversy spread to France via a fiery platform in Le Figaro, signed on March 12 by the associate of Classical Letters Raphaël Doan, then in a collective forum entitled
“To erase the Antiquity of our culture is to deny humanism”.

With the help of two ancient historians, specialist in Greek and Roman history, Adrien Delahaye and Caroline Schwob-Blonce, 20 minutes tried to better understand this controversy.

Why is there a controversy over Classics and their teaching in the United States?

Teacher-researchers like the renowned Dan-el Padilla Peralta, professor of Roman history at Princeton, wish ” save them Classics whiteness “. As pointed out
Raphael Doan in his tribune, the American historian affirms, for example, that “far from being outside the study of Antiquity, the production of whiteness resides in the very bowels of the Classics “. Johanna Hanink, associate professor of classics at Brown University, sees her discipline as “a product and accomplice of white supremacy.” This movement therefore accuses the ancient Greek and Roman societies of having laid the foundations for racism, colonialism and “white domination”.

If we had already been able to observe this type of positioning in various academic fields, it is quite new that it comes directly from teacher-researchers. In addition, this controversy intersects with broader questions about the future and the teaching of Classics. In the United States, researchers are questioning their responsibility for the political reappropriations that have been made from Greco-Roman antiquity until today, by the extreme right, supremacists, fascists or Nazis.

These questions are part of a context where the academic field is increasingly marked by the activist field, which handles concepts such as cancel culture, whiteness (whiteness) or even “white domination”. Adrien Delahaye, doctor in Archeology and History of ancient Mediterranean worlds, specialist in Sparta, explains that “recent American academic culture is experiencing a phenomenon of academic activism, which affects Antiquity like other fields. “

Can this controversy be imported into France?

“Asking why studying the Greeks and Romans today is an interesting and legitimate question,” says Caroline Schwob-Blonce, Senior Lecturer at the University of Caen Normandie, specialist in the Roman imperial period. But it arises differently in the Mediterranean basin, in the Middle East and in the United States. In the Mediterranean basin, people literally live in ruins be it Orange in France, Seville in Spain or Carthage which is next to Tunis. The Greco-Roman civilization is not an important part of the experience of these countries. It is not the same as in the United States or in Canada, where you may feel distant from it. “Adrien Delahaye also insists on the particular cultural relationship that the Mediterranean basin and Europe have with this Greek and Roman past:” The concepts of Greco-Roman antiquity are still at the heart of a good part of the institutions, of the culture, European countries ”.

In addition to the geographical, historical and more broadly socio-cultural context, the academic context is also very different in France and in the United States. “In France, we have separate departments with two different disciplines [Histoire et archéologie ancienne/Lettres classiques et philologie] unlike the Anglo-Saxon world which brings them together in the department of Classics which induces an already particular approach, ”explains Caroline Schwob-Blonce. In France, there is really this idea that “Antiquity is not an exception or a civilizational miracle, but constitutes a historical period, among others”, develops Adrien Delahaye. In addition, the departments are more diversified and offer to study the Greek and Roman worlds but also more broadly the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern worlds. Persian, Phoenician, Hittite, Carthaginian or Egyptian civilizations are for example part of it. To speak of the invisibilization of other ancient civilizations, as is the case in the United States, would therefore be inaccurate in the French case.

Is this a recent debate?

The two researchers interviewed by 20 minutes emphasize that this type of questioning on racism, slavery and political reappropriation is absolutely nothing new. Caroline Schwob-Blonce explains, moreover, that “historians always leave with questions from the present day, posed in the light of developments in our current society. “

“I find it interesting to use contemporary concepts as methodological tools to study Antiquity”, also approves Adrien Delahaye. The work of a researcher also consists in reconsidering, with contemporary knowledge and tools, various objects of study in order to re-examine history, which is thus never a fixed matter.

However, as Caroline Schwob-Blonce underlines, “it is one thing to study and another to judge, we must stay away from a contemporary logic of judgment of the past because with such moralization we enter into a unique thinking and reading system that is dangerous. »Our contemporary concepts are reading grids that did not exist in Antiquity. “The concepts of race, whiteness, gender: it’s interesting to use but we must not put in the heads and mouths of ancient Greeks and ancient Romans thoughts that are ours or fears that are ours »Measures Adrien Delahaye.

Thus, this controversy tells us more about the present-day United States than it does about ancient Greek and Roman societies.

Were Ancient Greek and Roman Societies Racist?

The question is complex. Caroline Schwob-Blonce explains that “according to what we know from texts, from sources, there were all the morphological types concerning the granting of Roman citizenship, we never looked at the color of the skin for the attribute. We are going to talk about the Romans from Spain, Africa, but it is in connection with a geographical origin. The Ancients do not know the concept of race. They can be xenophobic but it is not the same thing. “

The apprehension of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds is far from simple or binary. For example, the concept of “barbarian” is not absolute, nor linked to a particular people, but designates first those who do not speak Greek, then political enemies or finally people with specific cultural behaviors and practices. The Macedonians or the Romans for example were also considered by the Athenians in particular as barbarians. Caroline Schwob-Blonce also suggests considering the fact that “there was not a people specifically assigned to slavery because of such a supposed race. There were a lot of Greek, Gallic, German slaves… ”.

Does the study of Greek and Roman societies promote “white domination”?

Adrien Delahaye dissociates the two types of accusations brought against Classics : “To say that ancient societies were racist, why not, but we cannot put them on trial. On the other hand, one can make the trial of the contemporary re-uses which are made of it. However, the Greco-Roman civilization is no longer seen today as the unique model of Western civilizations. The Greeks and Romans kind of fell off their pedestal. Today we study ancient societies for what they are, like any human society. “

However, the over-representation of Greco-Roman issues in history, archeology or classical literature research is done to the detriment of other ancient, non-white civilizations. “But it is also a story of sources, specifies Adrien Delahaye. We have much more to say about the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans because they left us with many more literary, epigraphic, archaeological sources… ”

In conclusion, the two researchers fear that this movement in the United States will reduce the prism of reading the ancient worlds. “Part of this controversy is legitimate,” explains Caroline Schwob-Blonce. But we are not yet at the time of nuance, we are in the militant fight. “



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