ITV Legacy The Origins of Civilization 4 of 6 Egypt The Habit of

Legacy - The Origins of Civilization History Documentary hosted by Michael Wood and published by ITV, NHK in 1991 - English narration Information ------------------------------ The Legacy series is a search for the first civilizations and their continuing legacies. Each hour-long program focuses on one of the following regions: Iraq, India, China, Egypt, Central America, and the West. At best, this search for the continuing legacies of past civilizations can help explain how different cultures have developed over time, show how the past greatly influences all our lives, and cultivate a respect for other cultures. At worst, it can send a message that these civilizations have remained virtually unchanged through time, unlike the West, and cultivate a false view of other peoples as less "modern." The negative impact of the assumption that other cultures are not as modern as the West surfaces when Westerners make judgements, business deals, and policy decisions based on this assumption. Although Legacy aspires to the former objective, it often ends up fulfilling the latter. For example, the following statements by writer and presenter Michael Wood exemplify how the language Westerners often use to talk about non-Western peoples relegates them to a space and time outside of a Western view of the universe: "Two conceptions of civilization have fought for the soul of the peoples of the Americas, one foreign and recent, that of the West, the other ancient and native;" "For over 2000 years, China has been sustained by ideas virtually unchanged since the Bronze Age." Throughout the series, comments like the ones above and the relative absence of images of people creating and using modern technology make it difficult for viewers to see the integral roles non-Western peoples occupy in the present. Each program in the series seeks to outline the "great tradition" of a civilization. Wood's explorations of these various civilizations' great traditions are attempts to delineate some of the broad cultural principles which hold cultures together and distinguish them from one another. However, his efforts serve to create essentialized descriptions of societies that are comprised of numerous classes, ethnic groups, religions, and other types of communities (e.g. agrarian, nomadic, and urban). These descriptions are reminiscent of Ruth Benedict's characterizations of the Hopi and Apache as Apollonian and Dionysian, respectively. Specifically, he characterizes Iraqis as long-suffering, resilient, hard-bitten, and pessimistic people; he states that Indians hold non-violence, renunciation, the inner-life, and the female as pillars of their civilization; he claims that the Chinese are guided by Confucianism, reverence for ancestors, and the quest for harmony; he asserts that the key to understanding the lives of ancient Egyptians was their desire to overcome time, a yearning to live beyond their time on earth and become immutable; he characterizes Mayans as obsessed with time and the mathematics of eternity, Aztecs as war-like, and all Central Americans as possessed of an inner strength that would allow them to bear any burden, even one as heavy as the last 500 years; and lastly, he describes the great tradition of the West as rooted in a contradiction between savagery and idealism. One can only imagine an encounter between a Westerner and non-Westerner in which the Westerner judges the non-Westerner as an inauthentic Indian, Mayan or Iraqi because he/she does not conform to the essentialized characterizations above. Wood's presentation is also problematic because he does not allow the people whose civilizations he examines to speak for themselves. Even when he does interview people, he does not allow the viewer to hear their words directly or through a translator, rather he summarizes and interprets the meaning of their statements. In short, Wood deprives them of their ability to represent themselves. Wood is an ever-present guide through the series, perhaps distractingly so. There are several shots focused on him walking through crowds and across landscapes, and of him looking at buildings and artifacts where he obstructs the audience's view of the object under discussion. The scenes in which he observes buildings, art or ceremonies seem like guides for tourists, instructing them how to properly admire these objects and phenomena. Each video contains a great deal of information on the civilization it investigates, but the presentation of this information is problematic. In addition to its function as a source of information, this series could be useful as a study of the ways in which cultural information is presented, especially in comparison to other films. 4) Egypt - The Habit of Civilization Wood investigates the history of Egyptian civilization through a focus on spirituality. For him, the key to understanding ancient Egypt is to recognize the Egyptians' desire to overcome time, to become immutable. Centralized power, royal rituals and the cult of the dead intertwined to form the ideology of the first state; "For the Egyptians, divine kingship was the guarantee of a stable cosmos." Wood speculates that, perhaps, worship of the great ruler was a necessary stage in the development of civilization. While travelling to sites such as Edfu, Abydos and Hieraonkonpolis and discussing past and present expressions of spirituality, Wood constructs his argument that Egyptian society was predicated on the search for permanence and stability. As in the rest of the series, Wood's essentialized descriptions of the world's first civilizations allow him to comfortably use phrases such as "a typical piece of Egyptian imagination." This episode contributes to a view of people whose culture in many ways resembles the culture of their distant ancestors as remnants of the past in the present rather than as full members of the present. Wood introduces the episode as a search for the roots of Egyptian civilization and its continuation in the ordinary people of today who turn out to be villagers and nomads. the resulting message is that only people in the cities have changed significantly and entered the modern world. (See review of part 3 for more comments on this issue) Lastly, there is an odd scene in this episode in which Wood uses Freudian and Jungian frameworks to interpret art and symbols of the Old Kingdom. Why he chooses to use specifically recent Western theories to interpret non-Western art produced thousands of years ago is unclear. Screenshots ------------------------------ Technical Specs ------------------------------ * Video Codec: DIVX * Video Resolution: 528x400 * Audio Codec: mpga * Audio BitRate: 160000 BPS and 44100 Hz * Audio Channels: 2 * RunTime Per Part: 51:32 mins * Number Of Parts: 6 * Part Size: 460 Mb * Subtitles: Not Available * Ripped by anurag * VHS Rip Links ------------------------------ 1) Related Documentaries * http://docuwiki.net/?title=Civilisations * http://docuwiki.net/?title=Lost%20Cities%20of%20the%20Ancients * http://docuwiki.net/?title=Secrets%20of%20Lost%20Empires * http://docuwiki.net/?title=The%20Ascent%20of%20Man * http://docuwiki.net/?title=Ancient%20Voices * http://docuwiki.net/?title=Lost%20Worlds 2) ed2k Links ed2k://|file|ITV.Legacy.The.Origins.of.Civilization.1.of.6.Iraq.The.Cradle.of.Civilization.DivX.MP3.anurag.avi|482457588|58233AF7525666677B9A5DCD4344449D|h=6ESHI3A2B2A5SFL7WU7F5WG462LEN5VH|/ ed2k://|file|ITV.Legacy.The.Origins.of.Civilization.2.of.6.India.Empire.of.the.Spirit.DivX.MP3.anurag.avi|481438246|F2214AF61EA95ACF716F1BD9FB6AC134|h=663GSLJKYKPG7K4ESBM5HLG7Y2U5H2VT|/ ed2k://|file|ITV.Legacy.The.Origins.of.Civilization.3.of.6.China.The.Mandate.of.Heaven.DivX.MP3.anurag.avi|487020580|A715D308F9534CF11BC0CD94F19025E2|h=UFPO4J4ELQAXFCYTDZJEDIC5FERF3KDF|/ ed2k://|file|ITV.Legacy.The.Origins.of.Civilization.4.of.6.Egypt.The.Habit.of.Civilization.DivX.MP3.anurag.avi|487162430|C913D920ED61E8F67A77CBED6F1A446C|h=XYTD7XK3WKU77R5DJ4NGDJQLZOZLFAR5|/ ed2k://|file|ITV.Legacy.The.Origins.of.Civilization.5.of.6.Central.America.The.Burden.of.Time.DivX.MP3.anurag.avi|481486532|EE17A46DF4B808E8AEE885FBDF7E2F50|h=VUB2KTRKOEYH4P6HBC4DN7BJ3JXLNDVZ|/ ed2k://|file|ITV.Legacy.The.Origins.of.Civilization.6.of.6.The.Barbarian.West.DivX.MP3.anurag.avi|478856922|E3D205AD5504C3A505180237DD937B70|h=ZAYUWWW7BRBXLFXMCBH5C6PYIIYFJOTY|/ Added by http://docuwiki.net/?title=User%3AJumpinS Source: http://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Legacy_-_The_Origins_of_Civilization

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Thelightone (2013-12-23)

I enjoyed this series so much that I will probably seed it forever. Currently at a ratio of ~8 with this one so if you can't get it downloaded add a few more trackers and wait a few days.