High culture can flourish without a historical orientation

Evidence

It may be useful to begin by underlining the difference between what one might call historical and ahistorical societies. There are some civilizations that have reached a high level of material, moral and intellectual culture without being interested in the past. The outstanding example is Hindu India, that is, India before the advent of Islam… . Another example of an ahistorical culture is that of post-exilic Judaism. There is a marked change from the pre-exilic concern with history to the post-exilic neglect of history. The Greeks were very interested in what we would call contemporary history, the chronicling of the here and now. But there is very little Greek writing about times that, for them, were ancient. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1925

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the larger argument about what distinguishes historiographical traditions — resonates with studies of orality and memory in other traditions.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: why did post-exilic Judaism pivot away from history after being so history-focused pre-exile?