| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xvi, 238 pages ; 23 cm. |
| Series |
Oklahoma series in classical culture ; v. 11 |
|
Oklahoma series in classical culture ; v. 11.
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-225) and index. |
| Summary |
What was daily life like for a working man or woman in the Roman Empire? What was the meaning of labor for the laborer? Roman authors (who seldom were workers) depicted workers in ancient Rome but generally used stereotypes intended to amuse the upper class. "Common" men and women did write of their own lives, often poignantly and eloquently, in their epitaphs and votive dedications. At death they claimed the identity they had worked a lifetime to create. For many, the identity centered on occupation. In Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome, Sandra R. Joshel examines Roman commemorative inscriptions from the first and second centuries A.D. to determine ways in which slaves, freed slaves, and unprivileged freeborn citizens used work to frame their identities. ln the minutiae of the epitaphs and dedications she identifies the "language" of the inscriptions, through which the voiceless classes of Ancient Rome spoke. The inscriptions indicate the significance of work--as a source of community, a way to reframe the conditions of legal status, an assertion of activity against upper-class passivity, and a standard of assessment based on economic achievement rather than birth. Drawing on sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and women's history, this thoroughly documented volume illuminates the dynamics of work and slavery at Rome. |
| Contents |
Ch. 1. Listening to Silence: Problems in the Epistemology of Muted Groups. The Problem of Exclusion: Literature and Inscription. Strategies of Listening: Women's History and Ethnography. The Occupational Inscriptions: Sampling and Analysis. The Occupational Inscriptions and Roman Social History. Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome -- Ch. 2. Slavery, Freedom, and the Construction of Identity. Legal Status: The Components of What Was Given. Formal Nomenclature and Status Indication: What's in a Name? Assessing Legal Status: What They Did and What We Can Know. The Legal Status of Men and Women with Occupational Title. Toward an Understanding of the Significance of Occupational Title -- Ch. 3. The Meanings of Work. Naming and Claiming: Attitudes Toward Work in Latin Literature. Occupational Structure: The Work Named in Roman Inscriptions. Occupational Titles and the Needs of Rome's Elite. Naming and Claiming: Commercial Success and Professional Prestige. |
|
Ch. 4. Work in Its Social Context: The Question of Community. Two Occupational Structures and the Movement Between Two Worlds. Work, Status, and Community: Household, Shop, and Collegium -- Ch. 5. The Re-formation of What Was Given. The Question of Predominance. The Freed Artisan: Framing a Free Present. The Domestic Servant: Reframing the Terms of Power and Dependence -- Appendix 1: Some Useful Terms -- Appendix 2: Occupational Categories and Glossary -- Appendix 3: The Roman Population with Occupational Titles. |
| Subject |
Enslaved persons -- Rome.
|
|
Occupations -- Rome.
|
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Working class -- Rome.
|
| Indexed Term |
Working classes Social conditions History |
| Subject |
Inscriptions, Latin.
|
|
Labor -- Rome.
|
| Indexed Term |
Roman Empire |
| ISBN |
080612413X alkaline paper |
|
9780806124131 alkaline paper |
|
080612444X paperback |
|
9780806124445 paperback |
|
