The Archaeology of Difference
Gender, Ethnicity, Class and the 'Other' in Antiquity. Studies in Honor of Eric M Meyers
edited by Douglas R. Edwards and C. Thomas McCollough
To determine “the archaeology of difference” the studies in this volume draw on textual and material culture. What distinguishes an individual or a group in ancient society? How do issues of gender, ethnicity, social stratification and the view of the ‘other’ impact individuals, groups, and societal attitudes?
What distinguishes an individual or a group in ancient society? How do issues of gender, ethnicity, social stratification and the view of the ‘other’ impact individuals, groups, and societal attitudes? Foucault in his classic work, The Archaeology of Knowledge, observes that layers of information embedded in language and society often elucidate the unspoken assumptions that individuals, groups or societies hold most dear. What is perceived to distinguish one group can carry such symbolic power that whole societies structure their laws, gender roles, ethnic identities, and views toward the “other” in the light of perceived differences. The ancient world was dominated by such differences. Clothing, hair, costume, housing, gender, religion, set apart one from the other. Ascertaining the rules governing difference in antiquity is challenging. Such rules were generally assumed, not clearly delineated. To determine “the archaeology of difference” the studies in this volume draw on textual and material culture. How does archaeological data illuminate gender or ethnicity or interactions and views of the “other”? What in the archaeological evidence elucidates the attitude toward women’s role in society or Jewish perspectives on the Gentiles or attitudes toward the dead? What in texts illuminates the “other” especially as it relates to the writer’s or narrator’s perception?
Douglas Edwards was a distinguished professor of Religion at the University of Puget Sound (UPS) in Washington State. Edwards had a PhD in New Testament and Christian Origins from Boston University. His first venture in field archaeology occurred as an area supervisor at Sepphoris, Israel in 1986, where he worked another six years. He helped to excavate roof tiles with the stamp of the 6th legion Ferrata at Kefar Hananya and led his first excavation as co-director at Yodefat or Jotapata. An expert in GPS and GIS, Edwards’s last work included a survey of sites in Lower Galilee. C. Thomas McCollough is the Nelson D. and Mary McDowell Rodes Professor of Religion at Centre College in Danville, KY. McCollough has taught at the College since 1980 and has held the Rodes Professorship since 2002. In 2009, he received the Kirk Teaching Award. McCollough has particular expertise in the history of Christianity and Christian thought, biblical history and archaeology, and the contemporary Middle East.
- Edited by Douglas R. Edwards
- Edited by C. Thomas McCollough
Other Titles in this Series
City and Cemetery
Excavations at Kourions Amathous Gate Cemetery, Cyprus. The Excavations of Danielle A. Parks Volume 2: Human Bone, Ecofacts, and Artifacts
Volume 77
The Nabataean Temple at Khirbet et-Tannur, Jordan, Volume 1
Architecture and Religion. Final Report on Nelson Glueck's 1937 Excavation
Volume 67
An Examination of the Stratigraphy and Neolithic-Iron Age Pottery from Tel Jezreel, Area A
Volume 73
The Nabataean Temple at Khirbet et-Tannur, Jordan, Volume 2
Cultic Offerings, Vessels, and Other Specialist Reports. Final Report on Nelson Glueck's 1937 Excavation
Volume 68
Crossroads and Boundaries
The Archaeology of Past and Present in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus
Volume 65
The Archaeology of the Ostraca House at Israelite Samaria
Epigraphic Discoveries in Complicated Contexts
Volume 70
Bayt Farhi and the Sephardic Palaces of Ottoman Damascus in the Late 18th and 19th Centuries
Volume 72, 4
Unsilencing the Archives
New Approaches to the History of Archaeological Labor in the Mandate Period Middle East
Volume 80
Reflections of Empire
Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on the Pottery of the Ottoman Levant
Volume 64
City and Cemetery
Excavations at Kourion's Amathous Gate Cemetery, Cyprus. The Excavations of Danielle A. Parks Volume 1: Context, Analysis, and Conclusions
Volume 76
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