The Invention of Greek Ethnography: From Homer to HerodotusGreek ethnography is commonly believed to have developed in conjunction with the wider sense of Greek identity that emerged during the Greeks' "encounter with the barbarian"--Achaemenid Persia--during the late sixth to early fifth centuries BC. The dramatic nature of this meeting, it was thought, caused previous imaginings to crystallise into the diametric opposition between "Hellene" and "barbarian" that would ultimately give rise to ethnographic prose. The Invention of Greek Ethnography challenges the legitimacy of this conventional narrative. Drawing on recent advances in ethnographic and cultural studies and in the material culture-based analyses of the Ancient Mediterranean, Joseph Skinner argues that ethnographic discourse was already ubiquitous throughout the archaic Greek world, not only in the form of texts but also in a wide range of iconographic and archaeological materials. As such, it can be differentiated both on the margins of the Greek world, like in Olbia and Calabria and in its imagined centers, such as Delphi and Olympia. The reconstruction of this "ethnography before ethnography" demonstrates that discourses of identity and difference played a vital role in defining what it meant to be Greek in the first place long before the fifth century BC. The development of ethnographic writing and historiography are shown to be rooted in this wider process of "positioning" that was continually unfurling across time, as groups and individuals scattered the length and breadth of the Mediterranean world sought to locate themselves in relation to the narratives of the past. This shift in perspective provided by The Invention of Greek Ethnography has significant implications for current understanding of the means by which a sense of Greek identity came into being, the manner in which early discourses of identity and difference should be conceptualized, and the way in which so-called "Great Historiography," or narrative history, should ultimately be interpreted. |
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... Athens en passant. In the case of Athens, special thanks must go to Catherine Morgan and Robert Pitt for their unstinting attempts to pass on their knowledge and expertise and the School's librarians for their utter brilliance, patience ...
... Athens en passant. In the case of Athens, special thanks must go to Catherine Morgan and Robert Pitt for their unstinting attempts to pass on their knowledge and expertise and the School's librarians for their utter brilliance, patience ...
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... Athens, Spartan kingship, and, perhaps most famously, the Aetolian Eurytanians, notorious for their unintelligible speech and taste for raw flesh (ἀγνωσ τότατοι δὲ γλῶσσαν καὶ ὡμοφάγοι), receive little more than cursory attention as a ...
... Athens, Spartan kingship, and, perhaps most famously, the Aetolian Eurytanians, notorious for their unintelligible speech and taste for raw flesh (ἀγνωσ τότατοι δὲ γλῶσσαν καὶ ὡμοφάγοι), receive little more than cursory attention as a ...
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... Athenian—identity.78 Responses to this structuralist approach and the patter of identity-speak thus generated have ranged from tacit acceptance to blistering critique. James Davidson's (now somewhat notorious) TLS review of Hartog's ...
... Athenian—identity.78 Responses to this structuralist approach and the patter of identity-speak thus generated have ranged from tacit acceptance to blistering critique. James Davidson's (now somewhat notorious) TLS review of Hartog's ...
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... Athens. For Greek identity in the west, see Barron 2004; Braccesi 2004; along with studies by Dominguez and Kerschner (both 2004) on Phocaea. For Herodotus's treatment of barbarians in the west, see Nenci 1990; Munson 2006. For ...
... Athens. For Greek identity in the west, see Barron 2004; Braccesi 2004; along with studies by Dominguez and Kerschner (both 2004) on Phocaea. For Herodotus's treatment of barbarians in the west, see Nenci 1990; Munson 2006. For ...
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Contents
3 | |
CHAPTER 2 Populating the Imaginaire | 59 |
CHAPTER 3 Mapping Ethnography | 111 |
CHAPTER 4 Mapping Identities | 151 |
CHAPTER 5 The Invention of Greek Ethnography | 233 |
Abbreviations | 259 |
Bibliography | 263 |
Index | 327 |
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The Invention of Greek Ethnography: From Homer to Herodotus Joseph E. Skinner No preview available - 2012 |
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