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 inwardlooking; 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