WorldViews. The World in Textbooks

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Bibliographic data

Abadie, Sarah; Galiana, Maria A.: Roma, Edad Media. Vol. 2. Colección Pasado Presente. Montevideo: Monteverde, 1997, 72.

"Legacy of Mediterranean cultures"

This source summarises the achievements of Ancient Greece and Rome that have shaped modern Western society. The author considers herself and her readers in Uruguay to be part of Western society. Among the lasting legacies of Ancient Greece and Rome in the areas of politics, science and religion, she counts freedom, individualism, democracy and the notion of the free, responsible citizen. Furthermore, she emphasizes the fundamental significance of Greek and Latin as the protolanguages of today’s Romance languages.

Abadie, Sarah

Galiana, Maria A.

Nunez, Olga

Sandrin, Mary

Siniscalco, Christina

The history textbook Roma. Edad Media was published in two volumes; the book presented here is the second volume and intended for the lower secondary level in Uruguay.

Monteverde

[p. 72]

[...]

LEGACY OF MEDITRRRANEAN CULTURES: GREECE AND ROME.

Greek and Roman culture contributed to our Western culture:

-an essentially humanist intellectual and artistic development, meaning that humans were at the centre of these societies. They designed a world built for humans.

-a sense of freedom and individualism

-the concept of the citizen in contrast to that of the subject, which is characteristic of the Eastern cultures. In both Greece and Rome, the idea of the citizen prevailed, as a free person who was part of and responsible for a community.

-the concept of democracy and the Republic.

-the origins of our language, our science and our political, cultural and religious institutions.

If all words of Greek and Latin origin were removed, we would need to invent a new language in order to communicate. The majority of our names, institutional terms, names of months and scientific disciplines are derived from Greek and Latin.

Translation:
Murphy, Charlotte
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