Ethnic Identity in Greek AntiquityIn this book Jonathan Hall seeks to demonstrate that the ethnic groups of ancient Greece, like many ethnic groups throughout the world today, were not ultimately racial, linguistic, religious or cultural groups, but social groups whose 'origins' in extraneous territories were just as often imagined as they were real. Adopting an explicitly anthropological point of view, he examines the evidence of literature, archaeology and linguistics to elucidate the nature of ethnic identity in ancient Greece. Rather than treating Greek ethnic groups as 'natural' or 'essential' - let alone 'racial' - entities, he emphasises the active, constructive and dynamic role of ethnography, genealogy, material culture and language in shaping ethnic consciousness. An introductory chapter outlines the history of the study of ethnicity in Greek antiquity. |
Contents
3 | 23 |
The discursive dimension of ethnic identity | 34 |
an Argolic casestudy | 67 |
Staking the Heraklid claim | 89 |
Decoding the genealogical grammar | 99 |
Ethnicity and linguistics | 143 |
a synopsis | 153 |
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Common terms and phrases
Agamemnon Aigimios Aiolic Aiskhylos Akhaians Akousilaos Akrisios ancestors ancient antiquity Apollo appear archaeological Archaic Argive Argive plain Argolic Argolid Argos argued Arkadian artefacts Asine Athenian Athens attested Attika Bartoněk Bibliotheka Bronze Age burials Cambridge Catalogue of women century BC chapter cist graves cities common cult descent dialect groups Diodoros Dorian invasion Dorians Doric dialect Doros Dryopes eastern Argolid eighth century Epidauros eponymous Eteokretan ethnic groups ethnic identity Euripides evidence fact fifth century Foley Geometric Greece Greek dialects Hägg Helladic Hellanikos Hellenic genealogy Hera Herakleidai Herakles Heraklid Hermione hero Herodotos Hesiod historical Homer Iliad Inakhos inscriptions Ionians isoglosses Jameson Jeffery Korinth Korinthian Kretan Krete Lakonian language linguistic literary London material culture Merkelbach/West Messenian migration Müller Mycenaean Mykenai myth mythical origins Pausanias Peloponnese period Perseus Phoroneus phylai Piérart Pindar pithos population pottery Proitos Protogeometric Pseudo-Apollodoros region sanctuary social Sparta Strabo Thoukydides tion Tiryns tradition Troizen Vanschoonwinkel 1991 West Greek Zeus