Breaking And Constructing:A Study Of Jack Goody's Anti-Eurocentrism Historical Thought

Jack Goody(1919-2015).a famous British historian and anthropologist,occupies a place in the western history circle with his extremely rich writings,especially extensive research fields and quite unique research paths.He has long been a professor of social anthropology at Cambridge University and was knighted by the Queen of England in 2005 for his outstanding contribution to anthropology.His researches covered a wide field.He has written more than 20 monographs,such as The Myth of the Bagre,The Domestication of the Savage Mind,The Culture of Flowers and so on.But anti-Eurocentrism is the theme throughout of his writings.Goody's anti-Eurocentrism thought is mainly described in The East in the West,The Theft of History and Renaissance:The One or Many?In these three books,he uses the method of historical comparison to make a long-term and multi-angle analysis of the eastern and Western cultures,and puts forward a series of novel and interesting viewpoints,which provide us with many useful references for correcting the wrong understanding of the eastern and Western history and breaking through the narrow "Eurocentrism" thinking framework,as Amartya Sen.the Nobel laureate in economics,said:"is the best remedy for the distorted views of the West on the differences between East and West." These three books have their own internal relations while focusing on different aspects,forming a relatively complete and independent thinking system.Therefore,this paper will take these three books as the main body and try to analyze goody's research paradigm with the clue of anti-Eurocentrism.This paper consists of four parts:The first part describes the formation of goody's anti-Eurocentrism history thought."Eurocentrism"prevails in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences and has rich connotations and forms.It can be a cultural ideology or a paradigm of historical research.Anti-Eurocentrism has also experienced a long-term variation,from the reconstruction of the world history system to the re-interpretation of non-Western civilization,the focus of anti-Eurocentrism has gradually shifted from the correction of historical facts to the reflection of theories.goody's research is developed on the basis of criticizing and inheriting predecessors.His broad academic vision and rich knowledge reserves provide us with useful reference to re-recognize the development of world history and overcome the historical narrative of "Eurocentrism".The second part introduces goody's breakthroughs about "Eurocentrism".Goody's breakthrough about "Eurocentrism" is manifested in his thorough criticism of"Eurocentrism".Goody's criticism of "Eurocentrism" is in detail,he cites various acts of "theft" of history by Europeans,including the basic positioning methods of space-time;important physical institutions,such as universities and cities;and some"advanced”values.In addition,goody also shows three kinds of "Eurocentric"academic horizons,namely,some studies of Joseph Needham,Elias and Braudel.Although their reputation in the academic circles is very great,goody still believes that they have exaggerated the advantages of the West in modern times from different angles,thus their studies become "Eurocentric ".The third part shows the construction of goody's anti-Eurocentrism thought.The construction of goody's anti-Eurocentrism thought mainly includes two aspects:one is the application of historical comparison.Goody insists that only the method of historical comparison can help us get complete understanding of history.He has made a detailed comparative analysis of the unique factors emphasized by Western scholars,including "rationality" and family and so on.As a result,these unique factors not only aren't as important as imagined,but are often not unique in the West.The second is to reinterpret some important historical issues.goody mainly refutes the historical compilation system of "Eurocentrism".That is.a linear historical view from classicism.feudalism to capitalism.He tries to find the essence of these historical events from the perspective of social science.The fourth part is an evaluation of goody's anti-Eurocentrism thought.Goody's anti-Eurocentrism thought has its own characteristics,for example,in terms of method,adhere to the use of historical comparison;in terms of content,it mainly focuses on refuting historical compilation system of "Eurocentrism";and in terms of conclusion,it emphasizes the similarity of Eurasia.Goody's anti-Eurocentrism thought has an important influence,it reveals the concrete form of Eurocentrism and criticizes it fiercely.It helps to form a correct understanding of the history of the East and the West.However,its inadequacy lies in the lack of historical evidence in argumentation and the failure to complete the core and ultimate mission of anti-Eurocentrism.