Was intrigued by a long NPR talk show with the author of a new book on
apocalypse and the milennium in Euro-Christian culture - subtitled The
Year 1000 in Europe (other details escape me). Extremely interesting
remarks on the crystallization of European culture at the time, in the
face of Viking, Moorish, and Mongol (?) inroads, emphasizing the massive
conversion to Christianity occurring so intensively during those turn-of
the-millenium centuries. New to me was detail on the warrior / conquerer
character attributed to Christ at the time, esp. in Scandinavia
(analogous to militarization of deities in tandem with warfare and state
formation in ancient Near East, Mesoamerica, etc. - but less well known
to us here, I think). Only with the stabilization of the system ca. 1400
did this imagery give way to the more pacific model that is still
familiar now. Cultural materialists take heart.... It sounds like
something that would go nicely with eg Lynn White's analysis of the
impact of technological change (with the stirrup the key to feudal
military techniques and victory against the Arabs), not least via
borrowings from... China.
Apart from a classic piece by Eric Wolf of many decades ago, I do
not know of a similar analysis/deconstruction of the rise of Islam (in
response to Jewish monotheism cum Christian cultural/commercial
expansion in the eastern Mediterranean). I would appreciate any relevant
references (apart from the classic chronicles and cultural exegeses).
Cordially - kpm
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