Page 152 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

periodization—overview 1453

Anderson, R. M. (1979). Vision of the disinherited:The making of Amer- lence to the complex reality of the past, and even the
ican Pentecostalism. New York: Oxford University Press. most careful and most honest attempts at dividing up the
Baer, H. A., & Singer, M. (2002). African American religion:Varieties of
protest and accommodation (2d ed.). Knoxville: University of Ten- past involve some distortion. Any scheme must compro-
nessee Press. mise between the often contradictory demands of clarity,
Blumenhofer, E. L., Spittler, R. P., & Wacker, G. A. (Eds.). (1999). Pen-
tecostal currents in American Protestantism. Urbana: University of Illi- coherence, accuracy, and honesty.
nois Press. The challenge of finding an appropriate scheme of
Chesnut, R. A. (1997). Born again in Brazil: The Pentecostal boom and periodization is particularly complex in world history,
the pathogens of poverty. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Press. which tries to construct a coherent account of the history
Csordas,T. J. (1994). The sacred self:A cultural phenonomenology of char- of all human societies.This essay discusses the particular
ismatic healing. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Harrell, D. E. (1975). All things are popular:The healing and charismatic problems that periodization raises in world history, some
revivals in modern America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. traditional approaches to periodization, and the compro-
Hollenweger, W. J. (1997). Pentecostalism: Origins and developments mise solutions that have been adopted as a framework
worldwide. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
Jung, L. H. (1999). Minjung and Pentecostal movements in Korea. In A. H. for the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History.
Anderson & W.J.Hollenweger (Eds.),Pentecostals after a century:Global
perspectives on a movement in transition (pp. 138–160). Sheffield, Problems of Periodization
UK: Sheffield Academic Press.
Lancaster, R. N. (1988). Thanks for God and the revolution: Popular reli- in World History
gion and class consciousness in the new Nicaragua. New York: Colum- The task of breaking the past into manageable, labeled,
bia University Press.
Mariz, C. L. (1994). Coping with poverty: Pentecostals and Christian base chunks of time raises several sorts of problems. We can
communities in Brazil. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. classify them as theoretical, organizational, and ethical.
Martin, D. (2002). Pentecostalism: The world their parish. Oxford, UK:
Blackwell.
McGuire, M. (1982). Pentecostal Catholics: Power, charisma, and order Theoretical Problems
in a religious movement. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Periodization poses theoretical problems because any
Sanders, C. J. (1996). Saints in exile:The Holiness-Pentecostal experience
in African American religion and culture. New York: Oxford Univer- chronological scheme highlights some aspects of the
sity Press. past and obscures others. While a historian of gender
Stoll, D. (1990). Is Latin America turning Protestant? The politics of evan-
gelical growth. Berkeley: University of California Press. might look for eras in which the relative status and
Synan, V. (1997). The Holiness-Pentecostal tradition: Charismatic move- power of women and men changed (the granting of suf-
ments in the twentieth century. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerd- frage to women, perhaps, or the emergence of patriarchal
mans Publishing.
Wacker, G. (2001). Heaven below: Early Pentecostals and American cul- social relations in early agrarian societies), a historian of
ture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. war might be more interested in technological changes
that transformed military conflict (such as the use of gun-
powder or the appearance of the first organized armies),
while a historian of religion might look to the appear-
Periodization— ance of the so-called universal religions in the first mil-

lennium BCE. Different questions highlight different
Overview aspects of the past and generate different periodizations.
To choose a periodization is to make some critical judg-
eriodization refers to the way that historians divide ments about what is and what is not most important in
Pthe past into distinct eras. Like storytelling, history human history. By focusing on a particular region, era, or
writing requires a structure, and periodization is one of topic, historians can avoid some of these challenges, but
the main techniques used by historians to create struc- in world history, periodization requires judgments as to
ture. Yet the past is fluid, complex, and continuous, so the most important changes across all societies on earth.
any attempt to divide it into neat chronological chunks Is there sufficient consensus among historians as to what
is bound to be artificial. Periodization always does vio- those changes are? At present, the answer is probably no.