History 435.01 Special Topics

Ethnicity in Antiquity: the Construction of Status, the Self, and Ethnos

St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Fall  2000              Dr. Linda Jones Hall     MWF   9:20-10:30 Kent Hall 312

Office: 204 Kent  Hall         Phone:  301-862-4434 or ext. 0434      

Office hours:  MW 8:15-9:15 and by appointment

Email:  ljhall@osprey.smcm.edu   webpage: http://www.smcm.edu/users/ljhall/ljhall.html 

Course Description

This course will explore the meaning of "ethnic identity" in the ancient world, with a focus on the views of the Greeks, the Romans and the early Byzantines about the "other" peoples in their world-view.  Furthermore, the relationship between ethnic origin and status in the wider society will be examined. Although the writings of Martin Bernal and Edward Said have drawn attention to difficulties in previous interpretations of the interactions between Africa and Persia with Greece and Rome and their cultural heirs, the issues are more complex than some recent studies suggest.  Therefore, the course will focus widely on the concept of "barbarians" which was applied to such groups as the Germanic tribes as well. Also, the opportunities that existed in the ancient world to improve one's lot socially and economically by strategies of assimilation and distinction will be analyzed. Readings will come from such ancient sources as Herodotus, Livy, and Ammianus Marcellinus and from modern analysts of ethnicity and cross-cultural contact.

 

Course Readings

Herodotus. The History. Translated by David Grene. University of Chicago Press, 1987. ISBN 0226327728.

Polybius. The Rise of the Roman Empire. Translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert. Selected, with an Introduction by F. W. Walbank. Penguin. Books. 1979. ISBN 0140443622.

Livy. The War with Hannibal. Translated by Aubrey de Selincourt. Penguin Classics. ISBN 01404415x.

Tacitus. The Agricola and the Germania. Translated with an introduction by H. Mattingly; translation revised by S.A. Handford. Penguin. ISBN 0140443413.

Ammianus Marcellinus. The Later Roman Empire (A.D. 354-378). Edited, translated by Walter Hamilton. 1986. Introduced by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill.  Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044406-8.

Martin Bernal. Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (The Fabrication of Ancient Greece, 1785-1985). Vol. 1. Rutgers University Press. ISBN  0813512778.

Arnaldo Momigliano. Alien Wisdom: The Limits of Hellenization. Reprint edition. Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 0521387612.

Ramsay MacMullen. Roman Social Relations 50 B.C. to A.D. 284. Yale University Press, 1982. ISBN 0300027028.

Robert Turcan. The Cults of the Roman Empire. Translated by Antonia Neville. Blackwell Publishing, 1996. ISBN 06312000479.

 

Recommended guide to writing papers

Kate Turabian. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Revised by John Grossman and Alice Bennett. 6th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.  ISBN 022816273.

COURSE EXPECTATIONS

Regular attendance is expected. Read the assignments in advance and bring those texts to class as indicated on the syllabus. Intellectual honor, excellence, and honesty are demanded in all your work. There are severe penalties for plagiarism. Consult the Student Handbook for details.

 

GRADING

WEEKLY ORAL PRESENTATIONS                                                           =100points

PRESENTATION OF PAPER TOPIC                                                                       =100 points

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (10 items required)                                                 = 100 points

ATTENDANCE AND DISCUSSION                                                                        = 100 points

FIRST TEST                                                                                                                 = 100 points   

FINAL EXAM                                                                                                             = 100 points

FINAL PAPER                                                                                                 = 400 points

 

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

Students will make weekly presentations on assigned topics. These topics will include but not be restricted to discussions of assigned readings, both primary sources and secondary analyses. Students will also present reports on relevant journal articles, books, and websites. A schedule will be established for these presentations.

 

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Students will turn in an annotated bibliography of ten items. Each item should consist of the correct bibliographical citation for the book or journal article (which could be from a print or electronic format) and a paragraph which evaluates the main points the author is making. These items must be modern works IN ADDITION TO the four modern texts for the course, and they may be developed from the oral presentations (see above).

.

PRESENTATION OF THE PAPER TOPIC

Students will make a fifteen-minute presentation to the class of the main points of their paper topic. This presentation will include giving each member of  the class a handout which should list the proposed title, the student’s name, an outline of five points (either phrase or sentence outline), and five bibliographical entries the student plans to use in his/her final paper. The fifteen minute presentation includes time for class interaction and questions.

 

TEST AND EXAM

There will be a mid-term test and a final exam. These will be designed to assess the student’s comprehension of assigned readings from both the ancient and modern authors. Since the paper topics will be individualized, these tests will focus in a more general way on the student’s understanding of issues and arguments of the common readings for the course.

 

FINAL PAPER

This paper should be 10-15 pages in length, including bibliography and notes. YOU MUST USE 5 PRIMARY SOURCE QUOTATIONS!!!. Refer to Turabian for proper format for all aspects of writing.

STANDARD REFERENCE WORKS:

See the Oxford Classical Dictionary (1 vol., 3rd ed.) [OCD] and the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (3 vols.) [ODB] for articles that indicate current trends in historiography and refer you to important bibliography. These reference works are available in the Reference section of the SMCM library. At the front of these volumes is a key list of abbreviations of journals and other works that you will need for preparing the annotated bibliography and  research paper.

 

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Journals at SMCM (on the second floor of the library near the stairs at the rear of that floor) include Archaeology, American Journal of Archaeology, American Journal of Philology, Arethusa, Classical Journal, Classical Review, Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies, and others. You need to plan to order others by Interlibrary Loan. Use TOCSIN to get the citations.

 

PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTIONS

See the Loeb library volumes in the PA section of the library. There are other translations also in the History sections. Look up the ancient writer in an author search.

 

INTERNET RESOURCES for Ancient History

TOCS-IN, a search tool for recent bibliography of journal articles

            http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/amphoras/tocfind 

           

Paul Hassall’s website (follow the links to the Ancient History Sourcebook) 

            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/byzantium 

 

ARGOS, a search engine for ancient topics   http://argos.evansville.edu 

PERSEUS, huge archive of ancient texts & art   http://www.perseus.tufts.edu

DIOTIMA http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/gender.html 

VOICE OF THE SHUTTLE http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/shuttle/classics.html 

 

Course-related websites

Ken Mayer http://titan.iwu.edu/~kmayer/courses/hermes/index.html#Texts 

Egypt resources http://www.hist.unt.edu/09w-egy1.htm 

Black Athena web site http://homer.reed.edu/BlackAthena.html 

 

SUDA ONLINE Look for Stephen of Byzantium Ethnica

http://www.stoa.org/sol/help.shtml  


Schedule for HIST 435.01

“Ethnicity in Antiquity: the Construction of Status, the Self, and Ethnos”

St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Fall  2000             Dr. Linda Jones Hall     MWF   9:20-10:30         Kent Hall 312


Note: Some assignments are by ancient book and sections, not pages.

 

Week 1 HERODOTUS-Greek view of Eastern non-Greeks, such as Egyptians and Persians

Mon. Aug 28 Introduction to the course

Wed. Aug 30 Herodotus on Ionia and Persia, Book 1.1-6, 1.142-216; see also index

Fri. Sep 1 Herodotus on Egypt, Book 2; see also the index entry in Grene

 

Week 2 Black Athena Evolving modern views of Greeks and non-Greeks

Mon.  Sep 4  Bernal, Chapters 1 and 2

Wed. Sep 6 Bernal, Chapters 3, 4, 5

Fri. Sep. 8 Responses to Bernal:  Burstein and Lefkowitz

           

Week 3 POLYBIUS - Greek view of the Romans and the Carthaginians

Mon.  Sep 11 Polybius, Rome’s rise and the explanation, pp. 9-34, and Book 1.1-5

Wed. Sep 13 Polybius, Hannibal and the 2nd Punic War, Book 3.1-59.

Fri. Sep. 15 Polybius, Flamininus and the “freedom” of the Greeks, Book 18.1-12, 34-48

 

Week 4 MOMIGLIANO Greeks, Romans, Jews, Celts, and Iranians

Mon. Sep 18 Momigliano, Chapters 1-2

Wed. Sep 20 Momigliano, Chapters 3-4

Fri. Sep. 22 Momigliano, Chapters 5-6

 

Week 5 LIVY and the Roman view of the Carthaginians and allies

Mon. Sep 25 FIRST TEST (covers readings and discussions to date)

Wed. Sep 27 Livy, Book 21

Fri. Sep 29 Livy, Book 25

 

Week 6 LIVY and TACITUS- Roman view of “barbarians”

Mon. Oct 2 Livy, Book 30

Wed. Oct 4 Tacitus on Britain Agricola

Fri. Oct 6 Tacitus on Germany Germania

 

Week 7 MACMULLEN- Roman view of social status

Mon.  Oct 9 *SMCM FALL READING DAY

Wed. Oct 11 Chapters 1 and 2

Fri. Oct 13 MacMullen, Chapters 3, 4, and 5

 

Week 8 AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS Late Roman view of Germans, Arabs, and Persians
Mon. Oct   16  Ammianus, Editor’s Introduction and Book 14

Wed. Oct 18 Ammianus  Books 15-18

Fri. Oct  20 Ammianus, Books 21-22, and 31

 

Week 9 TURCAN - Roman religion as ethnic exoticism

Mon. Oct  23 Turcan, Introduction and Chapter 1

Wed. Oct 25 Turcan,Chapters 2-3

Fri. Oct 27  LIBRARY RESEARCH DAY- NO CLASS MEETING

 

Week 10 TURCAN continued

Mon.  Oct 30 Turcan, Chapters 4-5

Wed.  Nov  1 Turcan, Chapters 6-6 and epilogue

Fri. Nov 3 Literary expression as evidence for ethnic identity

                       

Week 11 Non-literary evidence for ethnic identity

Mon.  Nov 6 Artistic representation as evidence for ethnic identity

Wed. Nov 8 Archaeology as evidence for ethnic identity

Thursday night lecture by Steve Dyson on Pompeii at DPC at 8:00 p.m.

Fri. Nov. 10 Workshop by Steve Dyson on Roman archaeology

 

Week 12 INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS

Mon.  Nov  13 Class discussion

Wed. Nov 15 Individual office appointments

Fri. Nov 17 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES ARE DUE

 

Week 13

Mon. Nov 20 ORAL PRESENTATIONS on final research topics

Wed. Nov 22 & Fri. Nov 24    THANKSGIVING BREAK * NO CLASSES

 

Week 14 REVIEW AND REVISION

Mon. Nov 27 Summative discussions of readings and theories of ethnicity

Wed. Nov 29 drafts of papers due

Fri. Dec 1 Greek writers revisited

 

Week 15

Mon.  Dec 4 Roman writers revisited

Wed. Dec 6 FINAL PAPERS DUE

Fri.  Dec. 8 Revising past paradigms of ethnic identity

                                   

Week 16  Exam Thurs. Dec 14, 9:00 -11:00 a.m.

Cumulative, but with emphasis on material since first test

 

Some recommended additonal reading in ancient authors

Julian, Contra gallileos

Petronius, Satyricon, also known as The Dinner of Trimalchio

Juvenal, The Satires

Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars

 

The ancient Greek novels with an ethnic slant:

Berossus Babyloniaca

Manetho Aegyptica

Heliodorus Ethiopika

Homer Odyssey 1.1-30; 4. 1-619 (Menelaus and Helen in Egypt);

7. 1-206, 8.550-563 (Phaiacians);

13. 256-286, 14.243-309 (Odysseus' lies about Phoenicians)

p. 35-58, 111-153, 210-216

Plutarch Agesilaeus 36-40

Feb 25 Priests and Ethnographers: Herodotus in Egypt III

Hippocrates On Airs Waters and Places

The Savage Scythians

Plato Menexenus 239d-246a, Timaeus 21a-25d, Phaedrus 274b-275d

Aristotle Politics 7.10

Isocrates Busiris

Diodorus Siculus 1.96-98

 

Alexander and the Unity of Mankind:

Curtius Rufus The History of Alexander 4.7-8, 5.1-2.

Plutarch Life of Alexander 45, 47

Arrian Anabasis of Alexander 4.9-12, 7.5, 7.8-12

Plutarch On the Fortune of Alexander 4-8.

Diodorus Siculus 2.1-32

Agatharchides of Cnidos On the Red Sea (Diodorus Siculus 3.1-48)

Horace Epode 9, Ode 1.37, 1.38

Vergil Aeneid 8.847-992

Tacitus Annales 2. 59-61; Histories Book 5.1-5

Lucian De Dea Syriaca 1. 29

Hermes Trismegistus Kore Kosmu (W. Scott Hermetica p. 458-475).


Some Modern Bibliography on Ancient Ethnicity

 

(NOTE: This is a working bibliography and thus may not be consistent in format. Please confirm all citations before citing in a paper.)

 

Alston, Richard "Philo's In Flaccum: Ethnicity and social space in Roman Alexandria" Greece and Rome 44.2  (1997) 165-175.

Anderson, B. Imagined Communities. Rev. ed.  London: 1991.

Arnold, B. “The past as propaganda: totalitarian archaeology in Nazi Germany” Antiquity 64 (1990) 464-478

Boardman, J. The Greeks Overseas

Borza, Eugene N. “Ethnicity and Cultural Policy at Lysander's Court.” Ancient World 23.1 (1992) 21-25 

Bowersock. G. W.  Hellenism in Late Antiquity. Ann Arbor: 1990.

Burstein, Stanley M. "The Challenge of Black Athena: An Interim Assessment" Ancient History Bulletin 8.1 (1994) 11-17.

Burstein, Stanley M. "Greek Contact with Egypt and the Levant: Ca. 1600-500 BC. An Overview" Ancient World 27.1 (1996) 20-28.

Burstein, Stanley M. "The Roman Withdrawal from Nubia: A New Interpretation" SO 73 (1998) 125-132.

Chapman, M The Celts: The Construction of a Myth. New York: Macmillan, 1992.

Clarysse, W. "Two New Ethnics in Ptolemaic Papyri" ZPE 92 (1992) 232 -+-

Colin, Frederic "Identites ethniques et interactions culturelles dans l'antiquite. Reflexions autour       de l'ouvrage Ethnicity in Hellenistic Egypt" AC 63 (1994) 253-262

Collis, J. “Celtic myths.” Antiquity 71:271 (1997) 195 ff.

Cornell, Tim, and Kathryn Lomas. Gender and ethnicity in ancient Italy. Accordia specialist Studies on Italy, vol. 6. London: 1997.

Crumley, C. “Region, nation, history” Exkursus 4 (1991) 3-8

Demoule, Jean-Paul "Ethnicity, culture and identity: French and archaeologists and historians"      Antiquity 73.279 (1999) 190-97.

Dever, William G. "Ceramics, Ethnicity, and the Question of Israel's Origins [Late Bronze  IIB/Iron IA highland villages of Canaan were 'Proto-Israelite']" Biblical Archaeologist 58.4 (1995) 200ff.

Diaz-Andreu, Margarita, and Timothy Champion, eds. Nationalism and archaeology in Europe. London: UCL Press, 1996

Dietler, M. “‘Our Ancestors the Gauls: Archaeology, Ethnic Nationalism, and the Manipulation of Celtic Identity in Modern Europe” American anthropologist 96:3 (1994) 584-605.

Drijvers, J. W. 1982. “The Persistence of Pagan Cults and Practices in Christian Syria.”  In East of Byzantium, edited by N.Garsoïan, T. Mathews, and  R. Thompson. Washington, D.C.  35-43.

Esse, Douglas L. "The Collard Pithos at Megiddo: Ceramic Distribution and Ethnicity" Journal of Near Eastern Studies   51.2 (1992) 81 -+-

Finkelstein, Israel "Ethnicity and Origin of the Iron I Settlers in the Highlands of Canaan: Can      the Real Israel Stand Up? [reply to Dever]" Biblical Archaeologist 59.4 (1996) 198 -+-

Garnsey, P.D.A.,  and R.P. Saller, The Roman Empire: Economy, Society and Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

Geertz, C.  "Being There," in Works and Lives. Stanford: 1988, 1-24.

Given, Michael "Inventing the Eteocypriots: imperialist archaeology and the manipulation of      ethnic identity" Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 11.1 (1998) 3-29.

Gracheva, G.N. "Ethnic Features of the Language of Culture" AAEur 32.4 (1994) 9 -+-

Graves-Brown, Paul, Sian Jones, Clive Gamble, eds. Cultural identity and archaeology: the construction of European communities. Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) (Series) London and New York: Routledge, 1996.

Graves-Brown, P., Jones, S. and Gamble, C. 1995. Cultural Identity and  Archaeology: The Construction of European Communities (London).

Hall, Jonathan M ."Ethnic Studies Programs" PMLA 110.4 (1995) 865 -+-

Hall, Jonathan M.. Ethnic identity in Greek Antiquity. Cambridge (England) and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997

Hall, Jonathan M. "The role of language in Greek ethnicities" Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society  41 (1995) 83-100.

Härke, H. “Archaeologists and Migrations. A problem of attitude?” Current Anthropology 39:1 (February 1998) 19-48 (includes comments and response)

Härke, H. “‘The Hun is a methodical chap’ Reflections on the German tradition of pre- and proto-history” in Peter J. Ucko, ed., Theory in archaeology: a world perspective.
London and New York: Routledge, 1995, 46-60

Hedges, R.E.M. "A Comment on `The Potential Misuse of Genetic Analyses and the Social      Construction of "Race" and "Ethnicity"' by Mirza and Dungworth" Oxford Journal of Archaeology 15.1 (1996) 107 -+-

Hexter, R. “Sidonian Dido,” in R. Hexter and D. Selden, eds., Innovations of Antiquity, New York: 1992, 332-390.

Hingley. R. "The "legacy" of Rome: the rise, decline, and  fall of the  theory of Romanisation,"  in J. Webster and N. J. Cooper, eds. Roman Imperialism: Post-colonial Perspectives. Leicester: 1996, 35-48.

Iverson, E.  Obelisks in Exile Vol I. Copenhagen: 1968, pp. 11-24, 65-7, 76-81.

James, S. “Celts, politics and motivation in archaeology.” Antiquity 72: 275 (1998) 200 ff.

Jones,  C. P. “Ethnos and genos in Herodotus.”  Classical Quarterly  46 (1996.) 315-320.

Jones, S. The archaeology of ethnicity: constructing identities in the past and present. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.

Kazal, Russell A. "Revisiting Assimilation: The Rise, Fall, and Reappraisal of a Concept in      American Ethnic History" American Historical Review 100.2 (1995) 437 -+-

Keith, Kathryn "Spindle Whorls, Gender, and Ethnicity at Late Chalcolithic Hacinebi Tepe" Journal of Field Archaeology  25.4 (1998) 497--515.

Lefkowitz, Mary R. Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History. New York: BasicBooks, c1996.

Lefkowitz, Mary R., and Guy MacLean Rogers, eds.  Black Athena Revisited.  1996.

Lefkowitz, Mary R. "Classicists and the Black Athena Controversy" Classical Bulletin 75.2 (1999) 187-198.

Lewis, R.G. "Oscan Ethnics."  Historia 27 (1978) 239-241.

Luck, G. Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds : a collection of ancient texts.  Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press,1985.                                    

McCoskey, Denise Eileen. “Answering the Multicultural Imperative: A Course on Race and      Ethnicity in Antiquity.” Classical World 92.6 (1999) 553-561.

Megaw, J.V.S. and M.R. “The mechanism of (Celtic) dreams?': a partial response to our critics.” Antiquity 72 :276 (1998) 432 ff.

Megaw, J.V.S. and M.R.  “Ancient Celts and modern ethnicity”.   Antiquity 70:267 (1996) 175 ff.

Millar, F.  “Empire, Community and Culture in the Roman Near East: Greeks, Syrians, Jews and Arabs.”  Journal of Jewish Studies 38 (1987) 143-167.

Millar, F. “The Phoenician Cities: A Case Study of Hellenization.” Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 29 (1983) 55-71.

Millar, F.  “Local Cultures in the Roman Empire: Libyan, Punic, and Latin in Roman Africa.” Journal of Roman Studies 58 (1968) 126-134.

Mirza, M.N., and D.B. Dungworth. “The potential misuse of genetic analyses and the social      construction of `race' and `ethnicity'” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 14.3 (1995) 345 -+-

Morgan, C. “Ethnicity and Early Greek States: Historical and Material Perspectives.” Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society  37 (1991) 131-163.

Neusner, Jacob "Was Rabbinic Judaism Really 'Ethnic'?" Catholic Biblical Quarterly 57.2 (1995) 281 -+-

Redmount, Carol A. "Ethnicity, Pottery, and the Hyksos at Tell El-Maskhuta in the Egyptian      Delta [and from Tell el-Dab]" Biblical Archaeologist 58.4 (1995) 181 -+- 

Renfrew, Colin. The roots of ethnicity, archaeology, genetics and the origins of Europe
Roma: Unione internazionale degli istituti di archeologia, storia e storia dell arte in Roma v. 10, 1993.

Said, Edward.. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978.

Said, Edward. Orientalism: With an Afterword. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1995.

Shennan, Stephen, ed. Archaeological approaches to cultural identity. One world archaeology 10 London and Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989.

Snowden, Frank M., Jr. Before Color Prejudice: the Ancient View of Blacks. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1983. Repr. 1991.

Stone, Bryan Jack "The Philistines and Acculturation: Culture Change and Ethnic Continuity in      the Iron Age" Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 298 (1995) 7-32.

Tarn, W.  "Alexander the Great and the Unity of Mankind"

Whittaker, C. R.  Frontiers of the Roman Empire.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Wolfram, Herwig. The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples. Translated by Thomas Dunlap. University of California Press, 1997.