Literacy and the State in the Ancient Mediterranean PDF Download

Author: Kathryn Lomas
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781873415344
Category : Education and state
Languages : en
Pages : 240

View

Book Description

Author: Lindsey A. Askin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781350265059
Category : Education and state
Languages : en
Pages : 288

View

Book Description
"By integrating conversations across disciplines, especially focusing on classical studies and Jewish and Christian studies, this volume addresses several imbalances in scholarship on reading and textual activity in the ancient Mediterranean. Contributors intentionally place Jewish, Christian, Roman, Greek, and other reading circles back into their encompassing historical context, avoiding subdivisions along modern subject lines, divisions still bearing the ideological marks of ecclesiastical interests. In their examination, contributors avoid dwelling upon traditional methodological debates over orality vs. literacy and social classifications of literacy, instead turning their attention to the social-historical: groups of people, circles and networks, strata and class, scribal culture, material culture, epigraphic and papyrological evidence, functions and types of literacy and the social relationships that all of these entail. Overall, the volume contributes to an emerging and important interdisciplinary collaboration between specialists in ancient literacy, encouraging future discussion between two traditionally divided fields."--

Author: William V. Harris
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674033818
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 410

View

Book Description
The subject of this study is in any case the literacy of the Greeks and Romans from the time when the former were first provably able to write a non-syllabic script, in the eighth century B.C., until the fifth century A.D.

Author: William V. HARRIS
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674038371
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 406

View

Book Description
How many people could read and write in the ancient world of the Greeks and Romans? No one has previously tried to give a systematic answer to this question. Most historians who have considered the problem at all have given optimistic assessments, since they have been impressed by large bodies of ancient written material such as the graffiti at Pompeii. They have also been influenced by a tendency to idealize the Greek and Roman world and its educational system. In Ancient Literacy W. V. Harris provides the first thorough exploration of the levels, types, and functions of literacy in the classical world, from the invention of the Greek alphabet about 800 B.C. down to the fifth century A.D. Investigations of other societies show that literacy ceases to be the accomplishment of a small elite only in specific circumstances. Harris argues that the social and technological conditions of the ancient world were such as to make mass literacy unthinkable. Noting that a society on the verge of mass literacy always possesses an elaborate school system, Harris stresses the limitations of Greek and Roman schooling, pointing out the meagerness of funding for elementary education. Neither the Greeks nor the Romans came anywhere near to completing the transition to a modern kind of written culture. They relied more heavily on oral communication than has generally been imagined. Harris examines the partial transition to written culture, taking into consideration the economic sphere and everyday life, as well as law, politics, administration, and religion. He has much to say also about the circulation of literary texts throughout classical antiquity. The limited spread of literacy in the classical world had diverse effects. It gave some stimulus to critical thought and assisted the accumulation of knowledge, and the minority that did learn to read and write was to some extent able to assert itself politically. The written word was also an instrument of power, and its use was indispensable for the construction and maintenance of empires. Most intriguing is the role of writing in the new religious culture of the late Roman Empire, in which it was more and more revered but less and less practiced. Harris explores these and related themes in this highly original work of social and cultural history. Ancient Literacy is important reading for anyone interested in the classical world, the problem of literacy, or the history of the written word.

Author: Peter Fibiger Bang
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195188314
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 568

View

Book Description
Tracing the evolution of the state from its beginnings to the early Middle Ages, this comprehensive handbook focuses on key institutions and dynamics while providing accessible accounts of states and empires in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean.

Author: Jeremy McInerney
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118834380
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 608

View

Book Description
A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean presents a comprehensive collection of essays contributed by Classical Studies scholars that explore questions relating to ethnicity in the ancient Mediterranean world. Covers topics of ethnicity in civilizations ranging from ancient Egypt and Israel, to Greece and Rome, and into Late Antiquity Features cutting-edge research on ethnicity relating to Philistine, Etruscan, and Phoenician identities Reveals the explicit relationships between ancient and modern ethnicities Introduces an interpretation of ethnicity as an active component of social identity Represents a fundamental questioning of formally accepted and fixed categories in the field

Author: Alison E. Cooley
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444339265
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 581

View

Book Description
A Companion to Roman Italy investigates the impact of Rome in all its forms—political, cultural, social, and economic—upon Italy’s various regions, as well as the extent to which unification occurred as Rome became the capital of Italy. The collection presents new archaeological data relating to the sites of Roman Italy Contributions discuss new theories of how to understand cultural change in the Italian peninsula Combines detailed case-studies of particular sites with wider-ranging thematic chapters Leading contributors not only make accessible the most recent work on Roman Italy, but also offer fresh insight on long standing debates

Author: Simon James
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199665737
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 650

View

Book Description
This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online.

Author: Rosalind Thomas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521377423
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 222

View

Book Description
Explores the role of written and oral communication in Greece.

Author: Hella Eckardt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108418058
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

View

Book Description
This book focuses on the material practice of ancient literacy through a contextual examination of Roman writing equipment.