Material Culture and Social Identities in the Ancient World

This book considers how various aspects of material culture can be used to explore complex global and local identity structures in antiquity.

Shelley Hales (Edited by), Tamar Hodos (Edited by)

9780521767743, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 September 2009

358 pages
25.4 x 17.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.84 kg

'The volume as a whole is a very useful - and up-to-date - discussion on current issues broadly relating to identity. The editors have successfully managed to bring together a very diverse set of papers and to link general discussions and theoretical frameworks to well-expounded and specific case studies.' The Ancient History Bulletin

Recent studies have highlighted the diversity, complexity and plurality of identities in the ancient world. At the same time, scholars have acknowledged the dynamic role of material culture, not simply in reflecting those identities but their role in creating and transforming them. This volume explores and compares two influential approaches to the study of social and cultural identities, the model of globalisation and theories of hybrid cultural development. In a series of case studies, an international team of archaeologists and art historians considers how various aspects of material culture can be used to explore complex global and local identity structures across the geographical and chronological span of antiquity. The essays examine the civilisations of the Greeks, Romans, Etruscans, Persians, Phoenicians, and Celts. They also dwell on contemporary thoughts of identity, cultural globalisation and resistance that shape and are shaped by academic discourses on the cultural empires of Greece and Rome.

Part I. Theoretical Frameworks: 1. Local and global perspectives in the study of social and cultural identities Tamar Hodos
2. (Re)defining ethnicity: culture, material culture, and identity Carla M. Antonaccio
3. Cultural diversity and unity: empire and Rome Richard Hingley
Part II. Case Studies: 4. Ingenious inventions: welding ethnicities east and west Corinna Riva
5. Shaping Mediterranean economy and trade: Phoenician cultural identities in the Iron Age Michael Sommer
6. Samothrace: Samo- or Thrace? Petya Ilieva
7. The big and beautiful women of Asia: ethnic conceptions of ideal beauty in Achaemenid-period seals and gemstones Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
8. Unintentionally being Lucanian: dynamics beyond hybridity Elena Isayev
9. Tricks with mirrors: remembering the dead of Noricum Shelley Hales
10. Neutral bodies? Female portrait statue types from the Late Republic into the 2nd century CE Annetta Alexandridis
Part III. Afterword: 11. Cultural crossovers: global and local identities in the classical world David Mattingly.

Subject Areas: Globalization [JFFS], Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]