Major Themes
Thèmes Principaux
2. Millennium, time and history
2. Millénaire, temps et histoire
Organiser:
Reinhart Koselleck, Germany
Discussant:
Harbans Mukhia, India
a) The construction and division of time:
periodisation and chronology
a) Construction et division du temps: périodisation
et chronologie
Tuesday, 8 August, 9:00-12:00
Mardi 8 août de 9h à 12h
Building B, Auditorium 1
Co-Organiser:
Masayuki Sato, Japan
Discussant:
François Dosse, France
Introduction:
Homo sapiens is the only creature
that is equipped to look back consciously on its past. The past,
however, is chaos. It is the ability of man as homo historicus
that makes that chaos intelligible and understandable by giving
it order, structure, and meaning. One of the most important elements
which brings order to the past is time: Time is a "human
invention rendering chaos intelligible" rather than "something
that exists in itself." Among the various notions of time,
"year" is the notion of most relevant for organizing
the past, for without the invention of the "year" we
could not even be able to establish our past as history. The reckoning
of years is not merely the assignment of sequential numbers, itself
an advanced intellectual exercise peculiar to the human species.
It is also a political, social and cultural act of human intelligence.
Peoples and cultures have produced a variety of ways to reckon
years. The "Christian era" system is now most widely
used around the world, but there are many other systems, some
still in use; the combined system of era names and the sexagesimal
cycle in East Asia, the Jewish calendar, the Islamic way of reckoning
years, regnal years, Medieval European chronology by indictio,
etc.
What began as Christian chronology now functions
in the role of common chronology in the world, theoretically by
introducing "B.C." and by deciding the first of January
as New Year's Day, and politically through the dominance of Western
culture toward the end of twentieth century. "Common chronology"
undermines the very existence that every people, culture and nation
has its own "year," which is the foundation making possible
a balanced sense of history, by relativising our unconscious
historical sense that we are living in the year numbered 2000.
This balanced sense of history opens to us the possibility of
free and various senses of time.
Historians have been discussing "periodization" as a division of time for centuries, however, the nature of "chronology" as a construction of time was beyond the range of historians' concern. A discussion that joins chronology with periodization will open a new intellectual horizon on the way we remake our past into history. This session will invite eight speakers from around the world to discuss the various notions and ideas of constructing and dividing time in Africa, Asia, Europe, India, Islam and Judaism. The session will conclude by some theoretical discussions on the nature of chronology and periodization. The year 2000, as people around the world become particularly conscious of questions of chronology, is an especially good opportunity for a reconsideration of the meaning of the "year" and the century. This can lead to a discussion of whether the "turn of the century" has any meaning, or what time reckoning means, especially for historians, at the year of closing the 20th century.
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Papers:
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Theme 1b Théme 1b |
Major Themes |
Thèmes Principaux |
Theme 2b Théme 2b |