Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in the Ancient World [Hardcover]

Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in the Ancient World presents a cross-cultural comparison of the ways in which ancient civilizations thought about the past and recorded their own histories.

• Written by an international group of scholars working in many disciplines
• Truly cross-cultural, covering historical thinking and writing in ancient or early cultures across in East, South, and West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas
• Includes historiography shaped by religious perspectives, including Judaism, early Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism

Series Editor’s Preface vii

Notes on Contributors ix

Introduction 1
Kurt A. Raaflaub

1 On Being Historical 6
David Carr

2 The Task and Ritual of Historical Writing in Early China 19
Stephen W. Durrant

3 History and Primordium in Ancient Indian Historical Writing: Itihāsa and Purānòa in the Mahābhārata and Beyond 41
James L. Fitzgerald

4 Historical Consciousness and Historical Traditions in Early North India 61
Romila Thapar

5 Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in Ancient Japan: The Nihon shoki as a Text of Transition 79
Christian Oberländer

6 As the Dharmacakra Turns: Buddhist and Jain Macrohistorical Narratives of the Past, Present, and Future 97
Jason Neelis

7 History as Festival? A Reassessment of the Use of the Past and the Place of Historiography in Ancient Egyptian Thought 117
Thomas Schneiderl³*