A Cultural History of Race in Antiquity

Denise Eileen McCoskey

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781350067424
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350299979
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Social History
• Index: History

The era generally referred to as antiquity lasted for thousands of years and was characterized by a diverse range of peoples and cultural systems. This volume explores some of the specific ways race was defined and mobilized by different groups-including the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Persians, and Ethiopians- as they came into contact with one another during this period. Key to this inquiry is the examination of institutions, such as religion and politics, and forms of knowledge, such as science, that circumscribed the formation of ancient racial identities and helped determine their meanings and consequences.

Drawing on a range of ancient evidence-literature, historical writing, documentary evidence, and ancient art and archaeology-this volume highlights both the complexity of ancient racial ideas and the often violent and asymmetrical power structures embedded in ancient racial representations and practices like war and the enslavement of other persons. The study of race in antiquity has long been clouded by modern assumptions, so this volume also seeks to outline a better method for apprehending race on its own terms in the ancient world, including its relationship to other forms of identity, such as ethnicity and gender, while also seeking to identify and debunk some of the racist methods and biases that have been promulgated by classical historians themselves over the last few centuries.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Praise for A Cultural History of Race
• General Editor’s Preface Marius Turda
• Introduction Denise Eileen McCoskey
• 1 Definitions and Representations of Race Sarah Derbew
• 2 Race, Environment, Culture Joseph Skinner
• 3 Race and Religion Denise Kimber Buell
• 4 Race and Science David Kaufman
• 5 Race and Politics Grant Parker
• 6 Race and Ethnicity Naoíse Mac Sweeney
• 7 Race and Gender Shelley P. Haley
• 8 Race and Sexuality Jackie Murray
• 9 Anti-Race Dan-el Padilla Peralta
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Notes on Contributors
• Index