You may not give much thought to the many aspects of your human condition at this time, in this place, and in your body. Like a fish in water, we may not be aware of the cultural environment that we each “swim in.” Being an individual human being necessarily means that we have only a small taste of the full human experience. Our experiences are always delineated by our particular circumstances. Being of a specific gender, race, class, and age in a particular geographic and historical period are part of the richness of our everyday experiences, but they are also blinders on our awareness of the human experiences of others. Our particular human experiences may or may not evoke much conscious thought, but there are both subtle reminders and jarring confrontations with the facts of one’s particularity at certain times and in particular contexts. To what degree is it good to have an identity within a well-defined group? To what degree does identity become a problem when lines between identity markers become blurred, when we are assigned to groups with which we don’t identify or when we are rejected by groups that we feel we should belong to? When identity can be a struggle for us each as an individual, to what degree can any of us, as individual human beings, understand the experiences of another human being whose identity markers are different from our own?

Plowing farmer from burial chamber of Sennedjem, Egypt, ca. 1200 BCE

The central goal of this course, as well as the considerable challenge, is to raise our awareness about these essential facets of our collective human experience as they are presented in particular historical periods of Western Civilization. What did it mean to be both a woman and a slave in ancient Babylon or Athens? What did it mean for a serf and his family who lived in feudal France to be dispossessed of the land his family had farmed for hundreds of years? What was life like after the Civil War for a newly freed African American slave living in the Reconstruction South or the following Jim Crowe era of segregation?

These are not experiences we ourselves will have, but informing ourselves about our collective history using texts and images from different periods will help us know, as best we can, something about lives of others who have experienced “humanness” differently from ourselves. We will cover key historic periods across Western Civilization (from before it was even a concept). Within each era, we will touch upon only a few different aspects of “being human.” Hopefully, as a result of this and other exposures to historical humanness, you will be motivated to explore more on your own. Perhaps this course will spark an interest in a particular period (from the perspective of a particular gender, race, or class?) that you carry with you as a lifelong learner! If so, then another more subtle goal for this course will be reached: You will be touched by the experience of others to learn more about them.

A Gallic-Roman harvester. Relief from Trier

Since the beginning of Western Civilization, the “voice” speaking has been that of a dominant upper-class male (likely a version of “white”). The “Western Canon” is recognized as reflecting largely white European literature, thought, and experience, and does not include other “voices,” that have not traditionally been heard at all until relatively recently in our history. That group, white, male, upper-class, and of a certain religion and ethnic group, is what has been called “unmarked.” When a point of view is heard that is different in any way, then that difference is identified as “marked” (Waugh, 1982). The marked/unmarked concept is a useful one as we discuss gender, race, class, and other distinctions in the history of Western Civilization.

Gender, race, class, and culture are key characteristics that factor into the lived experience of each human being in every time and place. The intersectionality of these characteristics is as important as each.is independently. Other characteristics of course also enter the picture: ethnicity, age, educational background, religious affiliation and practice, and the culture of the family one was raised in.

The Harvesters, by Peter Breugel the Elder, 1565.

To help us see and appreciate what it means to be human through the lens of Western Civilization, we will focus on important aspects of the human experience and how they speak to us of that human experience. They will sharpen our awareness of cultural, political, religious, economic, and social conditions of particular groups living at a particular time and place. They will help us see from different perspectives who was viewed as “good” or favored and who was not; who “our people” were and who were “not our people”; who was with “us” and who was, in some way, the “other.” It should prove instructive and useful to place ourselves in the sandals and shoes of those who appeared on former stages throughout history.

In this introductory module, we start with a superordinate-level discussion of the notion of Western Civilization. Next we consider what the discipline of human development represents in social science. Then we consider some ways in which Western Civilization and human development relate to each other. From a more personal stance (always of interest in human development), we will consider how your identity resonates with events in Western history, particularly within the obvious categories of gender, race, class, and culture.

The commentaries for this introductory module provide an overview of the content and organization of the course. This module provides an opportunity to reflect on your initial thoughts and feelings regarding the issues we will be examining for the next 15 weeks before engaging extensively with course materials.