Ancient ethnography
Subtitle: new approaches
By: [edited by] Eran Almagor, Joseph Skinner
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2013
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781472554529
Subjects: Ethnology; History; Sources; Ethnology in literature; Ancient Civilization; Classical Civilization
Description: "By providing a platform for scholars working in a variety of fields, this v. presents cutting-edge research dealing with various aspects of ancient ethnographic thought: its formation and devlopment, its intellectual and cultural milieux, the later reception of ethnographic traditons, and the extent to which these represent major constitutive elements of shifting notions of culture, power and identity."--

Ethnographic writing has become all but ubiquitous in recent years. Although now considered a thoroughly modern and increasingly indispensable field of study, Ethnography's roots go all the way back to antiquity. This volume brings together eleven original essays exploring the wider intellectual and cultural milieux from which ancient ethnography arose, its transformation and development in antiquity, and the way in which 19th century receptions of ethnographic traditions helped shape the modern study of the ancient world. Finally, it addresses the extent to which all these themes remain inextricably intertwined with shifting and often highly contested notions of culture, power and identity. Its chapters deal with the origins of the term 'barbarian', the role of ethnography in Tacitus' Germania, Plutarch's Lives, Xenophon's Anabasis, and Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae, Herodotean storytelling, Henry and George Rawlinson, and Megasthenes' treatise on India. At a time when modern ethnographies are becoming increasingly prevalent, wide-ranging, and experimental in their approach to describing cultural difference, this book encourages us to think about ancient ethnography in new and interesting ways, highlighting the wealth of material available for study and the complexities underpinning ancient and modern notions of what it meant to be Greek, Roman or 'barbarian'
Notes: Also issued in print

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Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: Introduction: Ancient Ethnography Through the Ages Eran Almagor (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) and Joseph Skinner (University of Liverpool, UK)Part One: Beginnings The Invention of the 'Barbarian' in Late Sixth-century BC Ionia Hyun Jin Kim (University of Sydney, Australia) The Stories of the Others: Storytelling and inter-cultural Communication in the Herodotean Mediterranean Kostas Vlassopoulos (University of Nottingham, UK) Part Two: Responses An Achaemenid Ethnography? Dress, Costume, and Race on the Apadana Reliefs at PersepolisLloyd Llewellyn-Jones (University of Edinburgh, UK) Looking at the other: Vision, Travel and Greek Identity in Xenophon's Anabasis Rosie Harman (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) From the Indus to the Ganges: Apology and Analogy in Megasthenes' Indica Paul J. Kosmin (Harvard University, USA) Monstrous Aetolians and Aetolian Monsters - a Politics of Ethnography? Jacek Rzepka (Warsaw University, Poland) The Ethnographic Map in Early Rabbinic Literature Eyal Ben Eliyahu (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)Part Three: Transformations Ethnographic Digressions in Plutarch's Lives Eran Almagor (Ben Gurion University of the Negev)Ethnography and the Gods in Tacitus' Germania Greg Woolf (University of St. Andrews, UK) Ethnography and Authorial Voice in Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae Katerina Oikonomopoulou (University of Patras, Greece) Part Four: Receptions From Imagined Ethnographies to Invented Ethnicities: The Example of the Homeric Halyzones Anca Dan (Institute of Neohellenic Research, Greece) Imperial Visions, Imagined Pasts: Ethnography and identity on India's North-west Frontier Joseph Skinner (University of Liverpool, UK) A Tale of Two Rawlinsons Thomas Harrison (University of Liverpool, UK) Postscript: The Past and Future of Ancient Ethnography Emma Dench (Harvard University, USA) Index; title: Introduction; title: Eran Almagor and Joseph Skinner; title: Part 1: Beginnings; title: The Invention of the 'Barbarian' in Late 6th Century BC; title: Ionia Hyun Jin Kim (University of Sydney, Australia); title: The Stories of the Others: Storytelling and Inter-cultural Communication in the Herodotean Mediterranean; title: Kostas Vlassopoulos (University of Nottingham, UK); title: Part 2: Responses; title: Looking at the Other: Visual Mediation and Greek Identity in Xenophon's Anabasis; title: Rosie Harman (University College London, UK); title: Apologetic Ethnography: Megasthenes' Indica and the Seleucid Elephant; title: Paul J. Kosmin (Harvard University, USA); title: Monstrous Aetolians and Aetolian Monsters - A Politics of Ethnography?; title: Jacek Rzepka (Warsaw University, Poland); title: Part 3: Transformations; title: Ethnography and the Gods in Tacitus' Germania; title: Greg Woolf (University of St. Andrews, UK); title: 'But This Belongs to Another Discussion': Ethnographic Digressions in Plutarch; title: Eran Almagor (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel); title: Ethnography and Authorial Voice in Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae; title: Katerina Oikonomopoulou (University of Patras, Greece); title: Part 4: Receptions; title: Imperial Visions, Imagined Pasts: Ethnography and Identity on India's North-Western Frontier; title: Joseph Skinner (University of Newcastle, UK); title: Exploring Virgin Fields: Henry and George Rawlinson on Ancient and Modern Orient; title: Thomas Harrison (University of Liverpool, UK); title: The Scope of Ancient Ethnography; title: Emma Dench (Harvard University, USA); title: Index