107,375 research outputs found
Literary and documentary evidence for lay medical practice in the Roman Republic and Empire
The majority of surviving ancient medical literature was written by medical
practitioners and produced for the purpose of ensuring the effective
diagnosis and treatment of their patients, suggesting an audience of
medical professionals ranging from instructors to students. This has led
historians to concentrate on the professional medical practitioner and
their theories, methods and practices, rather than on lay medical practitioners,
or even patients themselves. This chapter seeks to redress this
imbalance, and examine the ancient literary and documentary evidence
for lay medical theories, methods and practices in the Roman Republic
and Empire in an attempt to reconstruct the experiences of lay medical
practitioners and their patients. The Roman agricultural treatises of Cato,
Varro and Columella, papyri and ostraca from Egypt, and tablets from
Britain are investigated, and it is established that the individualâs personal
acquisition of knowledge and expertise, not only from medical professionals
and works of medical literature, but also from family members
and friends, and through trial and error, was considered fundamental to
domestic medical practice
Relational Identities and Other-Than-Human Agency in Archaeology
Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology explores the benefits and consequences of archaeological theorizing on and interpretation of the social agency of nonhumans as relational beings capable of producing change in the world. The volume cross-examines traditional understanding of agency and personhood, presenting a globally diverse set of case studies that cover a range of cultural, geographical, and historical contexts.
Agency (the ability to act) and personhood (the reciprocal qualities of relational beings) have traditionally been strictly assigned to humans. In case studies from Ghana to Australia to the British Isles and Mesoamerica, contributors to this volume demonstrate that objects, animals, locations, and other nonhuman actors also potentially share this ontological status and are capable of instigating events and enacting change. This kind of other-than-human agency is not a one-way transaction of cause to effect but requires an appropriate form of reciprocal engagement indicative of relational personhood, which in these cases, left material traces detectable in the archaeological record.
Modern dualist ontologies separating objects from subjects and the animate from the inanimate obscure our understanding of the roles that other-than-human agents played in past societies. Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology challenges this essentialist binary perspective. Contributors in this volume show that intersubjective (inherently social) ways of being are a fundamental and indispensable condition of all personhood and move the debate in posthumanist scholarship beyond the polarizing dichotomies of relational versus bounded types of persons. In this way, the book makes a significant contribution to theory and interpretation of personhood and other-than-human agency in archaeology.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1141/thumbnail.jp
Writing Knowledge in the Soul: Orality, Literacy, and Platoâs Critique of Poetry
In this essay I take up Platoâs critique of poetry, which has little to do with epistemology and representational imitation, but rather the powerful effects that poeticperformances can have on audiences, enthralling them with vivid image-worlds and blocking the powers of critical reflection. By focusing on the perceived psychological dangers of poetry in performance and reception, I want to suggest that Platoâs critique was caught up in the larger story of momentous shifts in the Greek world, turning on the rise of literacy and its far-reaching effects in modifying the original and persisting oral character of Greek culture. The story of Platoâs Republic in certain ways suggests something essential for comprehending the development of philosophy in Greece : that philosophy, as we understand it, would not have been possible apart from the skills and mental transformations stemming from education in reading and writing; and that primary features of oral language and practice were a significant barrier to the development of philosophical rationality. Accordingly, I go on to argue that the critique of writing in the Phaedrus is neither a defense or orality per se, nor a dismissal of writing, but rather a defense of a literate soul over against orality and the indiscriminate exposure of written texts to unworthy readers
Conquest and Form: Narrativity in Joshua 5-11 and Historical Discourse in Ancient Judah
One goal of this essay is to offer an exploratory, historiographical analysis of the conquest account in the book of Joshua, an analysis that focuses upon the sociocultural milieu of ancient Judah. I propose to show how this narrative of conquest might have contributed to discourse(s) among the literate Judean community that perpetuated the text, and I will offer a few thoughts on the potential relationship between the narrative and the supposed cultic reforms of the late seventh century b.c.e. A number of biblical scholars have argued that the late monarchic period gave rise to the conquest story as recounted in Joshua. In this essay, I would like to pay special attention to precisely how this narrative might have functioned within the milieu of the late monarchic period, thus refining our understanding of the narrativeâs contribution to the discourses of this era and our knowledge of its relationship to other narratives that were probably extant at the same time. In other words, what particular features of the narrative might have had special import in this period? Specifically, I will argue that the narrative reveals certain discursive statements about Yahwehâs cultic supremacy and about important cultic sites in late monarchic Judah, and that this is evident in particular narratival features that are present in the text
Periodic Revival or Continuation of the Ancient Military Tradition? Another Look at the Question of the KatĂĄfraktoi in the Byzantine Army
This article discusses the question of origin and identity of katĂĄfraktoi â heavy-armoured
cavalry in Byzantium. In the specialist literature on the subject, there is a widespread opinion that
the heavily-armoured elitist cavalry, defined as catafracti and clibanarii had existed from the Hellenistic
period until the end of Late Antiquity. Whereas a comparison of the construction, material
and use of the individual elements of weapons and armour used by the Byzantine heavy cavalry
from the sixth century and the first half of the seventh century with those of the ancient catafracti
and clibanarii, allows us to draw the conclusion that the Byzantine heavily armed cavalry was its
continuation, not necessarily in respect of the identity of the formations and their tactics, but more
so in respect of the used arms and other elements of equipment. The term catafracti was not used
at that time. Classifying the Byzantine cavalry from this period as catafracti, despite the fact that it
is not usually defined in this way is based on the opinion of emperor Leo VI, expressed in Tactica,
in accordance with which the chief element which distinguished catafracti and clibanarii units from
other types of cavalry, was the complete armour of both the horse and rider. In spite of the fact,
that the Romans, in response to the Sasanid heavy horsemen created their own mailed cavalry
described by names catafracti or clibanarii, the influence of the Steppe people (principally the Huns
and Avars) was more pronounced in the next centuries. Their weapons and tactics completely
transformed the Byzantine way of war. In particular, this development concerned the cavalry â the
main striking force of Byzantine army at this time. As we have seen, a disappearance of the ancient
terms catafracti and clibanarii and their tactics (fighting in wedge-column order) was linked with
this process of change.
In the 10th century, in contemporary military treatises the term katĂĄfraktoi appeared once again, a fact
that can be connected with a usage typical for the âMacedonian renaissanceâ. At this time, the elitist
formations of this type constituted a force marginal as compared to other cavalry units making up
the Byzantine forces. However, the appearance of the 10th century katĂĄfraktoi were a practical effect
of the revival of ancient traditions in the Byzantine culture: they were not a formation which was
only modeled on its ancient predecessor, but its constituted a continuation of the ancient patterns.
The horsemen were equipped with similar protective armour as their ancient forerunners. They also
applied the same tactics, for instance by fighting in the wedge-column order, which is ascribed to
the ancient cavalry of this type. Sources mentioned above indicates, that this kind of battle array was reintroduced at this time. Moreover, the katĂĄfraktoi were also present as a main striking cavalry force
in the Comnenian army, which indicates, that heavy-armoured cavalry was still necessary. There is
no reason to accept the opinion that there was no continuous tradition of heavy-armoured cavalry
in the Byzantine Empire
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