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Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity

01 Jan 1997-
TL;DR: The nature and expression of ethnicity: an anthropological view 3. The discursive dimension of ethnic identity 4. Ethnicity and genealogy: an Argolic case-study as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: 1. Phrasing the problem 2. The nature and expression of ethnicity: an anthropological view 3. The discursive dimension of ethnic identity 4. Ethnography and genealogy: an Argolic case-study 5. Ethnicity and archaeology 6. Ethnicity and linguistics 7. Conclusion.
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Dissertation
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated stylistic and technological changes in the production of Attic Geometric and Orientalising finewares (c. 900 - 620 BC) and their relationship with society.
Abstract: This thesis investigates stylistic and technological changes in the production of Attic Geometric and Orientalising finewares (c. 900 – 620 BC), and their relationship with society. The transition from the abstract motifs of the Early and Middle Geometric styles to the figurative representations of the Late Geometric and Orientalising styles are examined in conjunction with the technological advances in the ceramic chaine operatoire, and the social changes that characterise these periods. According to previous studies, the social developments in the Athenian polis between the 9th and 7th centuries BC left traces in the archaeological record suggesting competition among different elite groups. This social competition was expressed through funerary rites, which were subject to continuous changes all across the Attic Early Iron Age. The consumption of decorated finewares in such rites and other important social occasions demarcated the social position of the consumers/users of fine decorated pottery, while ceramic styles adapted to accommodate the changing nature of social demands. An important manifestation of stylistic change was the dominance of the figurative style in pottery decoration during the beginning of the Late Geometric period (c.760 BC). The original hypothesis of this research project is based on the fact that decoration was only part of the total production sequence of Attic Geometric and Orientalising pottery; therefore, it could be likely that the social changes noted during these periods triggered broader advances in ceramic technologies employed for the production of such finewares. This thesis moves away from traditional stylistic approaches and employs a technological approach based on the chaine operatoire theory in order to explore the behaviour of Attic Early Iron Age potters and their response towards changing consumption demands during an era of significant social transformations.

29 citations

Book
11 Apr 2019
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the polis and island histories as a whole, and argue that their role in helping to create 'imagined communities' must be seen partly as a response to fragile and changing status in a changing and expanding Greek world.
Abstract: Greek 'local histories', better called polis and island histories, have usually been seen as the poor relation of mainstream 'great' Greek historiography, and yet they were demonstrably popular and extremely numerous from the late Classical period into the Hellenistic. The extensive fragments and testimonia were collected by Felix Jacoby and have been supplemented since with recent finds and inscriptions. Yet while the Athenian histories have received considerable attention, those of other cities have not: this is the first book to consider the polis and island histories as a whole, and as an important cultural and political phenomenon. It challenges the common label of 'antiquarianism' and argues that their role in helping to create 'imagined communities' must be seen partly as a response to fragile and changing status in a changing and expanding Greek world. Important themes are discussed alongside case studies of particular places (including Samos, Miletus, Erythrai, Megara, Athens).

28 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The early coinage of the Akhaian cities of South Italy against the backdrop of colonisation has been studied in this article, which suggests that coinage is much more than a symbol of authority and represents considerably more than just an abstract notion of sovereignty or hegemony.
Abstract: This article focuses on the early coinage of the Akhaian cities of South Italy — Sybaris, Kroton, Metapontion, Kaulonia, Poseidonia — against the backdrop of colonization. Minting an early and distinctive series of coins, these centres were issuing coinage well before their ‘mother-cities’, a phenomenon that has never been fully appreciated. With its origins in a colonial context, the Akhaian coinage of Magna Graecia not only differs from that of the early coin-minting states of the Greek mainland, it offers a case study that challenges long-held assumptions and potentially contributes to a better understanding of the origins of coinage. It does so by suggesting that coinage is much more than a symbol of authority and represents considerably more than just an abstract notion of sovereignty or hegemony. The images or emblems that the Akhaians of South Italy chose for their coins are those current in the contemporary cultural landscape of the historic Akhaians, but at the same time actively recall the world of the heroic Akhaians of the Bronze Age by referring to prehistoric measures of value. More than his, the vicissitudes of colonial and indigenous history in parts of South Italy in the Archaic period were not merely reflected in coinage, the coins themselves were central to the processes of transformation. By boldly minting — constructing — their identity on coinage, the Akhaians of South Italy chose money in order to create relations of dominance and to produce social orders that had not existed before.

28 citations


Cites background from "Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity"

  • ...Thus was Metapontion reputedly settled by Pylians after the Trojan War, Siris by the Trojans themselves, Petelia and its vicinity by Philoktekes, Lagaría by Epeios (the builder of the Trojan Horse), Argyripa by Diomedes, Skylletion by the Athenians under Menestheus, and Praeneste, along with other sites in Latium and on the west coast of Italy, by companions of Odysseus (Dunbabin 1948a, 32–4).9 Kroton itself alluded to Herakles as its founder, as is suggested by the late fifthcentury BC coin depicting a young Herakles and the inscription OIKISTAS (see above; Kraay & Hirmer 1966, pl. 93, no. 267; Icard-Gianolio 2000, 225)....

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  • ...…are adamant on this point, for in constructing their own ethnic identity the Akhaian communities of South Italy traced their ethnic solidarity back — via Akhaia in the northern Peloponnese — to the ‘pre-Dorian’ inhabitants of Lakonia and the Argolid (Hall 1997, 181; Morgan & Hall 1996, 197, 214)....

    [...]

  • ...Jonathan Hall (1997, 137), for example, citing the observations of Dieter Mertens (1976; 1990), has argued that another way of active signalling through material culture is provided by the architecture of the Akhaian colonies....

    [...]

  • ...The point is well elaborated in the recent volume on the history of money edited by Jonathan Williams (1997, 25): . . . if we look at these early electrum objects from the perspective of the older uses of metal that we Artemis at Ephesos, represents a type of context not common for later Greek silver coins (Hogarth 1908, ch. 5; Kraay 1976, 20–23)....

    [...]

  • ...For Kaulonia, as Catherine Morgan and Jonathan Hall (1996, 208–9) have argued, there are two concurrent foundation versions: a Krotoniate version, naming Kroton as the Kaulonian metropolis, and a Kaulonian version, which attempted to establish a first-generation Akhaian pedigree....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examines Ephesians in light of current research in ethnic studies, showing that the author domesticates the mythical language of baptism by making it fit the conventional morality of a household economy, thus presenting the most important ecclesiological concept, that of the body of Christ, as a unity that is more moral than mythic.
Abstract: This essay examines Ephesians in light of current research in ethnic studies. The methodological advance of such an approach is twofold: first, it moves the exegesis of the domestic codes to the wider frame of the letter; and, second, it goes beyond the limited hermeneutical framework of the ‘origins’ of the reconciliation language to the more productive examination of its function in the text. The concept of ‘one new humanity’ provides evidence for the author's ethnic reasoning, which participated in ancient cultural affirmations of the essential fluidity and changeability of all ethnicity. The author of Ephesians domesticates the mythical language of baptism by making it fit the conventional morality of a household economy, thus presenting the letter's most important ecclesiological concept, that of ‘the body of Christ’, as a unity that is more moral than mythic.

27 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Panhellenism is defined as the idea that the various Greek city-states could solve their political disputes and simultaneously enrich themselves by uniting in common cause and conquering all or part of the Persian empire as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: This article attempts to gather the evidence for panhellenism in the fifth century B.C. and to trace its development both as a political program and as a popular ideology. Panhellenism is here defined as the idea that the various Greek city-states could solve their political disputes and simultaneously enrich themselves by uniting in common cause and conquering all or part of the Persian empire. An attempt is made to trace the evidence for panhellenism throughout the fifth century by combining different kinds of evidence: that is, both poetic and historical texts, as well as the testimonia for monuments which are no longer extant. Any thought of a panhellenic crusade was impossible before the Persian invasions, but such an expedition, under the dual leadership of Athens and Sparta, was espoused by Cimon. After his death it remained an item of popular talk for the rest of the century and this talk intensified during the second half of the Peloponnesian War. The paper has six parts: the first finds hints of panhellenist ideology in the fragments of Simonides9 Plataea elegy and in Aeschylus9 Persians. The second part attempts to explain several puzzling passages in Herodotus in terms of his reflecting contemporary panhellenist discourse, especially in his account of Aristagoras of Miletus at Sparta. Part three reconstructs Cimon9 s belief in dual hegemony and his plans for a joint Athenian-Spartan expedition against the Persian empire. Part four connects an anecdote about Miltiades with the Cimonian monuments and argues that the artistic program of the Stoa Poikile was intended to support Cimon9s panhellenist aspirations. Part five discusses panhellenist sentiments in late fifth-century Greek poetry, and dates the Olympic Oration and Funeral Oration of Gorgias to the period 408-405 B.C., Finally, part six relates the panhellenist writings of Isocrates to earlier developments.

27 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 1980
TL;DR: Bourdieu as mentioned in this paper develops a theory of practice which is simultaneously a critique of the methods and postures of social science and a general account of how human action should be understood.
Abstract: Outline of a Theory of Practice is recognized as a major theoretical text on the foundations of anthropology and sociology. Pierre Bourdieu, a distinguished French anthropologist, develops a theory of practice which is simultaneously a critique of the methods and postures of social science and a general account of how human action should be understood. With his central concept of the habitus, the principle which negotiates between objective structures and practices, Bourdieu is able to transcend the dichotomies which have shaped theoretical thinking about the social world. The author draws on his fieldwork in Kabylia (Algeria) to illustrate his theoretical propositions. With detailed study of matrimonial strategies and the role of rite and myth, he analyses the dialectical process of the 'incorporation of structures' and the objectification of habitus, whereby social formations tend to reproduce themselves. A rigorous consistent materialist approach lays the foundations for a theory of symbolic capital and, through analysis of the different modes of domination, a theory of symbolic power.

21,227 citations

Book
01 Jan 1973
TL;DR: The INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ Books files are available at the online library of the University of Southern California as mentioned in this paper, where they can be used to find any kind of Books for reading.
Abstract: THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ PDF Are you searching for THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ Books files? Now, you will be happy that at this time THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ PDF is available at our online library. With our complete resources, you could find THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ PDF or just found any kind of Books for your readings everyday.

20,105 citations

Book
01 Jan 1997
TL;DR: Sian Jones as mentioned in this paper argues for a fundamentally different view of ethnicity, as a complex dynamic form of identification, requiring radical changes in archaeological analysis and interpretation, and presents a comprehensive and critical synthesis of recent theories of ethnicity in the human sciences.
Abstract: The question of ethnicity is highly controversial in contemporary archaeology. Indigenous and nationalist claims to territory, often rely on reconstructions of the past based on the traditional identification of 'cultures' from archaeological remains. Sian Jones responds to the need for a reassessment of the ways in which social groups are identified in the archaeological record, with a comprehensive and critical synthesis of recent theories of ethnicity in the human sciences. In doing so, she argues for a fundamentally different view of ethnicity, as a complex dynamic form of identification, requiring radical changes in archaeological analysis and interpretation.

816 citations