The Cultures within Ancient Greek Culture
Contact, Conflict, Collaboration

This book challenges the conventional perception of ancient Greece as the paradigm for unified models of culture.

Carol Dougherty (Edited by), Leslie Kurke (Edited by)

9780521815666, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 October 2003

310 pages
24.4 x 17 x 1.9 cm, 0.872 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Every chapter is, as one would expect from these contributors, elegant and sophisticated … there are many illuminating insights here and it indicates directions in which more radical future work might go. As such, it is a book for scholars and advanced students rather than generalists or those at school.' The Journal of Classics Teaching

Originally published in 2003, The Cultures within Ancient Greek Culture challenges the conventional perception of ancient Greece as the paradigm for unified models of culture. It offers an alternative view of archaic and classical Greece, one in which the contact, conflict and collaboration of a variety of 'sub-cultures' combine to comprise what we understand as 'Greekness'. This volume argues for the recognition and analysis of cultural contact within Greece, focussing on the micromechanics of cultural exchange, the permeability of cultural boundaries, and the significance of Delphi's geographically marginal, yet symbolically central location as an 'internal contact zone'. Through attention to everyday practices and professions, the essays reveal important ways of conceiving of diversity within Greek culture, ranging from the non-elite culture of athletic trainers to the competing musical cultures at work in fifth-century Athens.

1. Introduction Carol Dougherty and Leslie Kurke
Part I. The Circulation of Cultures: 2. 'Culture' of 'cultures'?: Hellenism in the late-sixth century Jonathan M. Hall
3. The Aristonothos Krater: competing stories of conflict and collaboration Carol Dougherty
4. Hybridity and the cultures within Greek culture Carla Antonaccio
Part II. Negotiation and Conflict at the Margins: The Case of Delphi: 5. Aesop and the contestation of Delphic authority Leslie Kurke
6. Aristocratic victory memorials and the absent charioteer Nigel Nicholson
7. Framing and gift: the Siphnian treasury at Delphi and the politics of public art Richard T. Neer
Part III. Athens: Convergences and Diversity within the Polis: 8. The pipes are brawling: conceptualizing musical performance in archaic Athens Richard P. Martin
9. The sound of cultural conflict: Kritias and the culture of Mousike in Athens Peter Wilson
10. Becoming the 'other': attitudes and practices at Attic cemeteries Katarzyna Hagemajer Allen
11. Postscript: culture, thin coherence, and the persistence of politics Josiah Ober.

Subject Areas: Cultural studies [JFC], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]