"One of my ongoing personal hangups is the fact that the ancient world was not like our modern world (and I'm using "modern" here with extreme intent); subjectivity and the relations between polities were completely different, and our projections back onto the past don't match that past. (This is part of what Prasenjit Duara means when he talks about rescuing history from modernity.) Ancient societies had far more in common with each other than we might think (and they were also far more diverse than we might think); they also had more in common with us than we might think, though in different respects."
This is something I think about a lot, especially as someone who studies histories of peoples that often have strong resonance for modern-day identity politics. I like your point about how much ancient societies had in common with each other--far more with each other than with us, most of the times, even in times and places where we cannot help but project back.
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"One of my ongoing personal hangups is the fact that the ancient world was not like our modern world (and I'm using "modern" here with extreme intent); subjectivity and the relations between polities were completely different, and our projections back onto the past don't match that past. (This is part of what Prasenjit Duara means when he talks about rescuing history from modernity.) Ancient societies had far more in common with each other than we might think (and they were also far more diverse than we might think); they also had more in common with us than we might think, though in different respects."
This is something I think about a lot, especially as someone who studies histories of peoples that often have strong resonance for modern-day identity politics. I like your point about how much ancient societies had in common with each other--far more with each other than with us, most of the times, even in times and places where we cannot help but project back.