Let me start this by saying that I love NPR. I think they are the least biased news source currently available to me and do a great job with little money. Now, I shall rip them a new one.
I found this article on All Things Considered very troubling because of the Westernism it embodies. By westernism I mean (and please tell me if there’s a better word for this) the train of thought that leads one to believe that the White European “West” is better than anyone darker.
This article centers around the beautiful carvings, tilings, and paintings common in the Islamic world, where representations of creation are considered sacrilege. I’ve always been in awe of them, myself. So, a physicist has discovered that there are underlying algebraic principles necessary for creating these works of art. He says that these works show “remarkably advanced mathematics” as though the Islamic world didn’t invent algebra (Al-Jabr meaning “computation” according to my dictionary). He goes on to state that he, as a white western physicist, recognizes the patterns as something that “mathematicians just described just 30 years ago […] could Islamic artists have known about this weird geometry 500 years earlier?”
Hmm, let’s think about it for a moment. YES! They used it 500 years earlier. Just because it didn’t occur to you until 30 years ago doesn’t mean that someone else didn’t think of it. “[This discovery] raises the question of whether medieval artists really understood the math behind their creations”. Really? Now, I’m certain that modern physicists aren’t doing the same things with these patterns (unless I’m very confused about the current nature of the Yale physics department), but that doesn’t mean that the people who came up with these patterns 500 years ago (you know, those darkies) didn’t understand them and just stumbled upon them. Hey! Maybe they’re a revelation from God. That would explain why these uncivilized curs came up with them before we great and glorious modern people did. Maybe the Yale physics department should all admit that there is only one God and Mohammed is His prophet.
When I learned about math, I didn’t learn learn that we got it from the Islamic world, but I did learn that we used Arabic numerals (as opposed to Roman numerals, can you imagine doing long division with those?). In fact, I didn’t know how vital a role Arabic scholars played in keeping “western civilization” on track during the Dark Ages until I took The Sources of Christian Ethics and learned that most, if not all, copies of Greek philosophy that we have access to today were kept by Arabic scholars from destruction.
Now as a PWW (privileged white woman) who grew up in the PWW (privileged white world), I’m definitely susceptible to the line of thought I used as the title here. I’ve thought about getting one of these bumper stickers in response of all the “my child/dog is better than you/your child/anyone” stickers. I rarely have an ego problem. I still get my knickers in a twist, though, when I see it so broadly applied.
“They were […] thinking about [advanced algebraic computations…] 500 years before people in the West were really seriously considering them […] I think that’s really fascinating.” Fascinating? How about humbling? How about instructive? How about a way of thinking about my own superiority complex that I’d never thought of before?
“We know that they were good mathematicians: we know that they studied Euclid.” Because they only way they could’ve come up with any kind of mathematic thought on their lonesome would be to steal it from the Greeks.
It’s like they’re living in a vacuum. It’s absolutely stunning.
4 responses so far ↓
1 RyanH // Feb 23, 2007 at 1:26 pm
See also this criticism of NPR’s coverage of Hip-Hop. Brown is exotic and to be objectified, apparently (and therefore, completely misrepresented).
2 Elaine Frei // Feb 23, 2007 at 1:34 pm
*smiles just a little* This isn’t a new attitude. Being an archaeology enthusiast, I think I’d probably be rich if I had a nickel for every time I’ve read or heard someone express the opinion that (insert culture) couldn’t have built (insert landmark building), so they must have had contact with the Europeans/space aliens/Atlanteans/insert other supposedly superior culture.
It’s so silly. While I don’t discount that Islamic scholars had access to work done by the Greeks…I’m sure they did…that does not make the advances they made any less remarkable, considering that the West also had access to those at least from the Renaissance when it became acceptable again to study the natural world, but it still took Western mathematicians until a very few years ago to make the same strides. Of course, they’d probably assert that they were busy doing more important things, like figuring out how to blow up a whole city with one bomb rather than having to use a lot of them.
The thing I thought was a little petty was the statement by one mathematician (I think; I’d have to go back and look at the story again to be sure) in the story I saw about this issue. He said, more or less, well, maybe they had this in their art, but how can we be sure that they really understood the mathematical implications of it. I wanted to ask him, how he can be so sure that they didn’t.
Well, I’ve got to go back to work now. This five minute break turned into more like ten or fifteen minutes.
Thanks for the food for thought.
3 nee // Feb 23, 2007 at 8:13 pm
I didn’t listen to the broadcast; I only read the npr article so I don’t know if there was more in the broadcast or not.
My take on it was not one of superiority but one of “Were the artists aware of these concepts?”. To that question my answer would be “Maybe. Maybe not.” I’ve created things with my hands that have patterns and of course a math equation could be derived but sure as heck not by me.
Many things created by nature and by the hands of people are stunningly beautiful and involve mathematics though that may be the afterthought, so to speak. (Which is why math is beautiful… anyone seen the movie pi?) It read to me like they were wondering if the artists knowingly used those principles. I could see them asking it of art created on any continent.
I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. I read it as them having awe that these concepts may have been known about for longer than they surmised, not awe that it was another culture.
I recall being taught the foundation for lot of fundamental principles came from Asians and Egyptians. I would imagine scholars know a lot more about that than me. If the ones from this article truly do have an air of superiority, that’s disappointing. I hope that is not the case.
4 Miko // Feb 23, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Ryan: wow, I guess I didn’t realize it was indicative of a more endemic problem. I have to admit that I listen to NPR for no more than 4 hrs a day (although it sounds like a lot when I say it like that…) and basically just turn it on while I putter. Often, I’m listening with half an ear unless something interesting (to me) comes along.
Elaine: I loved your example of what us white folks was busy doing instead of making great art out of advanced mathematical concepts. I laughed alone, that’s high praise
nee: the quotes that I have in my post are, for the most part, directly from the radio-article (except where I said “west”, “western civilization”, and “computation”, and where I denigrated bumperstickers). Unfortunately, the overall theme of radio-article was “we’ve no idea how these savages managed this!” And it was very overt. I’m sure that a lot of people in the Islamic world didn’t understand a lot of mathematics, but there were still some extremely advanced thinkers there while Europeans were busy burning themselves over semantics. The Islamic faith is also very mathematic/logical at its heart. It appeals an awful lot to reason, which I find to be indicative of the culture as a whole during the Caliphate. I do hope that some of the people interviewed (or interviewing) do hold a higher opinion of the Islamic world than is evidenced by the editing of this article.
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