So here is the point: the lecturer describes the Mayan, Aztec and Incan civilizations as the “highest” in the Americas in the pre-Conquest era. He defines “highest” as having the most political, social, and cultural complexity. OK, fine. But if we apply the same criteria to compare those civilizations with Christian Europe, Europe’s civilization obviously would come out on top. It would be “higher.” But to admit this in today’s academic world is inconceivable, and the professor doesn’t go there.

On the contrary, a lecture or two later, in talking about Portugal’s exploration down the West coast of Africa in the 15th Century, he strongly emphasizes the claim that the European and African civilizations of the time were equal–exactly equal!–with respect to culture, politics and technology.

But not five minutes earlier, he had said that our understanding of the African culture and history of that era is limited by the fact that our sources are all European. We read the writings of European priests, ship’s captains and bureaucrats. Really? But why can’t we just read what the Africans themselves wrote at the time?

Because they didn’t know how to write. So the claim of cultural equality is frankly ridiculous.

[This isn’t exactly a new or even particularly ‘woke’ affectation. The legend of the Noble Savage has thrived in Academia for decades, and perhaps centuries, although it’s clearly gotten worse more recently with the attempts to downplay the achievements of Western civilization. It’s almost verboten to even suggest one civilization could be better than another, even when one practiced brutal human sacrifices. — Ed]