The Dictionary of Global Culture:
What Every American Needs to Know
as We Enter the Next Century--from
Diderot to Bo Diddley by Kwame
Anthony Appiah
Informative, Rewarding, Educational, Historical Accounts
This work, edited by two of Americas most accessible public intellectuals,
from Harvard Universitys Afro-American studies department, is a scholarly
yet easy-to-read reference that serves as a cultural-literacy primer for the
third millennium. Multicultural in scope, it contains concise and timely
essays on everything from the Islamic origins of algebra to Chinua Achebe,
the Dalai Lama, John Coltrane, Frida Kahlo, and Fannie Lou Hamer. Gates
and Appiah also include figures of popular culture such as Amy Tan and
J.R.R. Tolkien. What makes the work most impressive is the editors search
for an understanding of other cultures that enriches without displacing the
achievements of Western civilization, showing how African, Afro-American,
Hispanic, Asian, and European writers, politicians, and artists have all
contributed. --Eugene Holley Jr.
Personal Review: The Dictionary of Global Culture: What Every
American Needs to Know as We Enter the Next Century--from
Diderot to Bo Diddley by Kwame Anthony Appiah
What is a griot? Who is Che Guevara? I didn't ask if you have heard of
him--who hasn't--but can you describe his importance to cultural
development? What are the Mari letters? Why are they important? Why is
Ibn Rushd important?
All these items and people belong to what is called global culture. With the
internet and instant updating of information, we are now truly a global
community. As a result, we must update our own mental files to include
terminology and people of other places, times, people, cultural events.

That's where "The Dictionary of Global Culture" comes in. Henry Gates, Jr,
(one of my favorite intellectuals and a professor at Harvard) and Kwame
Anthony Appiah (philosopher, writer, professor currently at Princeton)
compiled and edited this major undertaking.
They make clear in the introduction that ideas from a global perspective
are not meant to displace Western ideas, but to enrich them. "Our idea in
making this book was a simple one: to give ... a sampler of cultural
contributions from around the globe" (xi).
The project began when they asked a colleague, Jiaxing Wang, to provide
a list of essential products of Chinese civilization that readers should know.
The list surprised them by omissions of things sure to be on it--gunpowder,
noodles, Mao Zedong-- and inclusion of surprising items like Spring
Festival. This list of essential items became the basis for inclusion from
experts in cultures all around the globe. An identical challenge was
presented to each.
A griot, then, is a "professional oral historian who carries on the ancient
tradition of praise-singing, storytelling, and genealogy in contemporary
African culture; they are often compared to bards in other traditions" (262).
As Gates and Appiah explain in the introduction, a tradition from one
culture is often carried to another country and syncretized into its tradition.
The griot in Africa became Uncle Remus in the South telling the stories of
Br'er Rabbit and morals deduced.
Che Guevara was a "guerrilla leader in South America and prominent
figure in the Cuban revolution" and originally the source of the idea that the
only solution to massive poverty in Latin America was violent revolution.
The Mari letters are ancient Canaanite cuneiform tablets that provided
information about the reign of Hammurabi of Mesopotamia and its
extensive influence on the region. Most importantly, this information shows
that "the ancient Hebrew texts of the Old Testament were a complex mix of
legend, myth, polemic, and social history" (439).
Ibn Rushd (Averroes as he is known in the West) was an Islamic
philosopher and scientist who was born in Spain in 1126. It was through
his work and translations of Aristotle that Western scholars "re-discovered"
Aristotle.
I often conclude alphabetical books with the last entry, serendipitous to
me, a Louisiana native, as the last term is "zydeco." It is a "style of Cajun,
Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-American traditions, played predominantly in
southwest Louisiana and east Texas" (716). Again, the syncretism, or
blending of cultures of the West and areas outside (Louisiana, France,
Haiti, Africa) to create a new tradition, is so representative of global
culture.

These are just several entries "from the miscellany of human achievement"
(xiv). If you found them interesting, imagine what 717 pages will do for your
mental processor!
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