The East in the WestThe East in the West reassesses Western views of Asia. Traditionally many European historians and theorists have seen the societies of the East as 'static' or 'backward'. Jack Goody challenges these assumptions, beginning with the notion of a special Western rationality which enabled 'us' and not 'them' to modernise. He then turns to book-keeping, which several social and economic historians have seen as intrinsic to capitalism, arguing that there was in fact little difference between East and West in terms of mercantile activity. Other factors said to inhibit the East's development, such as the family and forms of labour, have also been greatly exaggerated. This Eurocentrism both fails to explain the current achievements of the East, and misunderstands Western history. The East in the West starts to redress the balance, and so marks a fundamental shift in our view of Western and Eastern history and society. |
Contents
Rationality in review | 11 |
Rationality and ragioneria the keeping of books and the economic miracle | 49 |
Indian trade and economy in the medieval and early colonial periods | 82 |
The growth of Indian commerce and industry | 113 |
Family and business in the East | 138 |
From collective to individual? The historiography of the family in the West | 162 |
Labour production and communication | 205 |
Revaluations | 226 |
early links between East and West | 250 |
| 263 | |
| 285 | |
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Common terms and phrases
achievements activity Africa Ahmadabad Arabic argued argument Arikamedu Aristotle Asia Asian Azande bookkeeping Bronze Age Buddhist Cambridge capitalism capitalist changes Chaudhuri China Chinese cloth commenda commerce companies Confucian continued cotton culture discussion dominated double-entry earlier early East Economic History empire England English enterprise entrepreneurs especially European example exchange existed export factors family firms feudalism Goody Greek groups growth Gujarat Hindu historians household important India Indian logic Indian Ocean individual industrial Industrial Revolution industrialisation involved Islam Japan joint family kind kinship labour later linked logic London major manufacture marriage medieval Mediterranean mercantile merchants Mesopotamia mode of production modern modernisation Muslim notion organisation partly partnership period problem procedures putting-out system rationality relations Revolution role Roover seen Serge Dassault seventeenth silk similar sixteenth century social societies specific syllogism textiles trade traditional Weber West western Europe wider writing
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Page 1 - plant colonies in their ports, and give laws to their natural princes? The same wind that carries them back would bring us thither.' 'They are more powerful, sir, than we', answered Imlac, 'because they are wiser; knowledge will always predominate over ignorance, as man governs the other animals.
Page 1 - 1 This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise . . . (Richard II,
Page 1 - natives of our own kingdom and those that surround us, they appeared almost another order of beings. In their countries it is difficult to wish for anything that may not be obtained: a thousand arts, of which we never heard, are continually labouring for their convenience and pleasure; and whatever their own climate
Page 1 - I conversed with great numbers of the northern and western nations of Europe; the nations which are now in possession of all power and all knowledge, whose armies are irresistible, and whose fleets command the remotest parts of the globe. When I compared these men with
Page 1 - why their knowledge is more than ours, I know not what reason can be given but the unsearchable will of the Supreme Being.