Seminarium im. Mariana Małowista. Universalizing the “Rest”

Bio: Kaveh Yazdani is an assistant professor at the history department of the University of Connecticut. His recent publications include the co-edited volumes Capitalisms of the “Global South”, Historia Crítica 89 (2023), Capitalisms: Towards a Global History, Oxford University Press: Delhi 2020 and the monograph India, Modernity, and the Great Divergence: Mysore and Gujarat (17th to 19th Century), Leiden/Boston: Brill 2017.

Abstract: A non-Eurocentric periodization of global history is needed to take heed of the crucial intercontinental circulation of humans, ideas, resources, practices and goods as part of the contributions of the non-Western world to modernity. Therefore, non-European influences should also be reflected and expand into existing institutions. Concurrently, as long as the concrete material conditions in the “global south” do not radically change, non-Eurocentric approaches will not have a wide-ranging societal impact. On the other hand, anti-Eurocentric and postcolonial thought contain the pitfalls of Asio- and Afrocentrisms and are equally ahistorical. Both Eurocentrism and reverse-Orientalism bear the risk of misconstruing Asio-African, Latin American and Caribbean dynamics between the 8^th and 18^th centuries (in the case of Eurocentrics) and Euro-American empires and nations from the 16^th to the 21^st century (in the case of anti-Eurocentrics). Moreover, the postmodern and postcolonial overemphasis on contingency and suspicion towards terms such as “pre-capitalist”, “backward” and “progress” misrepresents historical realities and power relations, and, thus, abets the idea of cultural relativism. Connected and comparative methodologies are both necessary, if we want to understand the global co-production of historical processes or discern similarities and differences, comprehend the reasons behind disparate levels of development und capture asymmetrical power relations.