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Fronteiras: Revista Catarinense de História. Dossiê Fronteiras, migrações e identidades nos mundos pré-modernos. N 35, 2020/01 –
ISSN 2238-9717
135
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36661/2238-9717.2020n35.11549
quando as ciências europeias viram a necessidade de elaborar narrativas universais,
protagonizadas por um avanço linear que vai da Grécia para Roma, de Roma para os reinos
europeus e assim por diante. Obviamente que, hoje, estudiosos da Antiguidade e do Medievo
já criticaram esta postura e, em grande medida, já superaram essa questão. O que não foi
superado, eu diria, é o que chamo de “protagonismo temporal”, em que as divisões pedagógicas
da História ainda respondem à movimentos mais ou menos eurocentrados. O que isso significa?
Significa que os grandes blocos históricos, em especial quando dispostos nos livros didáticos,
ainda funcionam na lógica da narrativa mestra criada na Modernidade. Ainda que, na Academia,
essa postura não seja hegemônica, ela o é nas escolas e na consciência histórica de um público
geral. Falar em “medieval” evoca, por exemplo, uma imagem histórica e estética que ainda se
entrelaça com estereótipos e posicionamentos superados. O que isso significa para os espaços
não-europeus? Que imagem é evocada quando se fala em “África Medieval”? Aqui entramos
num segundo problema: o “Orientalismo”. Uma “África Medieval” é um espaço de caravanas
no Saara? De turbantes e comerciantes de escravizados? O “Islã Medieval” é um espaço de
califas? De cimitarras e camelos? Todos estes estereótipos, que podem ser entendidos a partir
dos debates sobre Orientalismo de Edward Said, ainda são firmes, fixos tanto na Academia
quanto fora dela. Assim, defendo que o termo “pré-Moderno”, além de trazer um campo “não
semeado” por narrativas ultrapassadas, também permite pensar mecanismos de integração e de
protagonismo histórico sem incorrer, imediatamente, à uma narrativa mestra, com “centros
históricos” claramente estabelecidos. O “pré-Moderno” abre espaço para uma diversidade de
focos, de vozes, de realidades... e o faz sem, necessariamente, usar a Europa como eixo de
classificação cronológica. Como? Entendendo “Modernidade” não como um período, mas
como um sistema de pensamento categorizante que surge com as visões historiográficas após
os séculos XV e XVI. Ou seja, o “pré-Moderno” aqui não indica um “pré-Queda de
Constantinopla”, mas um “pré-Formação do Pensamento Histórico Eurocentrado”. Assim, este
“pré-Moderno” que defendo funciona como uma anti-divisão, na verdade; como um chamado
para que tenhamos em mente as implicações das raízes profundas de nosso pensamento
histórico (implicações muitas vezes deletérias e epistemicidas). Obviamente, não considero que
falar de História Antiga e Medieval seja essencialmente um problema, mas defendo que
passemos por uma problematização historiográfica quando olharmos para espaços não-
europeus: a África de Mansa Musa, por exemplo, ou o Iraque de Hārūn Ar-Rašīd. Em outras
palavras: para melhor estabelecer uma perspectiva histórica mais ampla, mais “global”, mais
inclusiva e mais diversa, o “pré-Moderno” funciona como bom termo Guarda-Chuva e um