"We can only speak of our western culture," says Eco, "for in exotic cultures we don't have a theoretical text to tell us whether that mask were intended to cause aesthetic delight, or fear, of hilarity. "
The implication that non-western civilizations have not written aesthetic texts is false. India, Indonesia, China and Japan all have written aesthetic texts; both China and Japan have a rich, thousand year old tradition of aesthetic writings.
Why does Eco lie?
Is he embarrassed to admit that there may be something he does not know? (Or worse: that there may be books he has not read?)
Whatever his reason, he stands firmly in the ancient European tradition of ignorance about other civilizations; worse: ignorance justified by sweeping dismissive misrepresentations to the effect that whatever we, Europeans, do not know is not so much not worth knowing as -- simply -- non-existent.
Perhaps we should reverse this model and pretend that Umberto Eco does not exist.
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