58505 - Social History of the Ancient World (1)

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Docente: Daniela Rigato
  • Credits: 6
  • SSD: L-ANT/03
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in History (cod. 0962)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will know the social history of the Greek and Roman world and be familiar with the present historiographic debate. They will be able to contextualize and comment upon specific literary sources from a personal knowledge of original Greek and Roman texts. They will know the structure of Greek and Roman society as well as the importance of gender and identity definition involved in the social and cultural debate of that time according to their structural components and historical evolution. They will tackle texts and data from a personal interpretative perspective, as well as being able to organize, summarize and classify complex information and issues in a lucid manner. They will have acquired self-criticism, an ability to learn from mixing with others, and to choose the learning tools best suited to their own skills and purposes.

Course contents

Work and workers in Roman society.

1) Introductory Lecture: It will be dedicated to the analysis of sources and research methodology in the social history of the ancient world.

2) Specific topic: Work and workers in Roman society.

2.1) General aspects related to the relationship between work and society (three lessons)

In the mentality of the Greco-Roman world the consideration of work seems to change according to the ideology that characterizes the different social classes. The comparison between literary sources and epigraphic documentation gives, for its part, an apparently discordant and non-homogeneous picture. His analysis also provokes multiple reflections that lead to questions about various aspects:

- the existence of an a priori "compatibility" between professions and social groups;

- the traceability of a positive conception of work, uniformly interpreted as a source of pride and a source of prestige and social distinction for members of the lower classes;

- the possible role of belonging to a professional category or collegium as a means of building a positive social identity;

- the existence of a hierarchy of work activities;

- the acquisition and practice of a profession as a means of literacy.

2.2) Case studies:

Professions relevant to the field of medicine, which are the subject of social considerations at the antipodes, which emerge from the comparison between Greek and Roman society. At the same time, these are professional categories documented by a considerable number of epigraphic documents compared to those pertinent to other activities (three lessons).

Other professions (five lessons):

-agricultural and breeding activities

-business

-crafts

-women's professions  with a comparison between Greek and Roman society

-child labour

2.3 The last aspect on which attention will be focused will be the significant presence of collegia in Roman society:

- their role in the wor ld of work and the motivations that have favoured their development and diffusion (two lessons).

- Particular attention will be given to the cases of the collegia of centonarii, fabri, dendrophori, libitinari (two lessons).

 

Readings/Bibliography

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

1) Lessons Notes.

2) Reading of:

- Gabriella Poma, Riflessioni sulla storia antica, in La storia antica
Metodi e fonti per lo studio
, a cura di G. Poma, Il Mulino, Bologna 2016, pp. 7-25.

- Alessandro Cristofori, La documentazione, in A. Marcone (ed.) Storia del lavoro in Italia. L’età romana. Liberi, semiliberi e schiavi in una società premoderna, Roma 2016, pp. 35-76.

- Ellen Meiksins Wood, Schiavitù e lavoro, in I Greci. Storia Cultura Arte Società, I, Noi e i Greci, a cura di S. Settis, Torino 1996, pp. 611-636.

- Nadine Bernard, Il lavoro al femminile, in Donne e società nella Grecia antica, Roma, Carocci, 2011, pp. 117-140.

-Franco Giorgianni, La funzione tecnica e il mestiere dell’artigiano nella Grecia antica tra merito e responsabilità. Una rassegna critica, ὅρμος - Ricerche di Storia Antica n.s. 9-2017, pp. 420-437.

Two items to choose from the following:

E. Cantarella, Qualche considerazione sul lavoro femminile a Pompei, Saitabi, 49, 1999, pp. 259-272;

S. Castagnetti, I collegia della Campania, in Forme di aggregazione nel mondo romano, a cura di Elio Lo Cascio e Giovanna D. Merola, Bari, Edipuglia, 2007, pp. 223-241;

A. Cristofori, C. Salvaterra, La ricerca italiana del XX secolo sugli artigiani, i commercianti e le loro organizzazioni professionali nel mondo romano (available in academia.edu)

D. Faoro, I collegia professionali nel bellunese: il caso dei dendrophori. Stato degli studi e proposte di riflessione, Archivio Storico di Belluno, Feltre e Cadore, LXXV, n. 324, pp. 5-18 (available in academia.edu).

Students not attending lessons, must contact the professor (daniela.rigato@unibo.it)

For those not attending lessons, the reading the following papers is provided:

- Gabriella Poma, Riflessioni sulla storia antica, in La storia antica
Metodi e fonti per lo studio
, a cura di G. Poma, Il Mulino, Bologna 2016, pp. 7-25.

- Mauro De Nardis,Terminologia e concetto di “lavoro” in età romana, in A. Marcone (ed.) Storia del lavoro in Italia. L’età romana. Liberi, semiliberi e schiavi in una società premoderna, Roma 2016, pp. 79-­90.

-Cristofori, A., Lavoro e identità sociale, in A. Marcone (ed.) Storia del lavoro in Italia. L’età romana. Liberi, semiliberi e schiavi in una società premoderna, Roma 2016, pp. 149-174.

-Rigato D., Medicines, doctors and patients in Greek and Roman Society, in M. Malatesta (ed.), Doctors and Patients. History, Representation, Comunication from Antiquity to the Present, San Francisco (USA) 2015, pp. 23-51.

- Ellen Meiksins Wood, Schiavitù e lavoro, in I Greci. Storia Cultura Arte Società, I, Noi e i Greci, a cura di S. Settis, Torino 1996, pp. 611-636.

- Nadine Bernard, Il lavoro al femminile, in Donne e società nella Grecia antica, Roma, Carocci, 2011, pp. 117-140.

-Franco Giorgianni, La funzione tecnica e il mestiere dell’artigiano nella Grecia antica tra merito e responsabilità. Una rassegna critica, ὅρμος - Ricerche di Storia Antica n.s. 9-2017, pp. 420-437.

F. Diosono, Collegia. Le associazioni professionali nel mondo romano, Edizioni Quasar, Roma 2007.

The volumes are available in the library of the Ancient History Section, via Zamboni 38, II floor.


Teaching methods

On-line and direct lessons in classroom.

Students are urged to intervene critically.

Numerous materials relevant to the course will be made available on the website of the course on the platform Virtuale (https://virtuale.unibo.it/).

Assessment methods

The exam will take the form of an oral discussion and the student will be assessed according to the knowledge he has acquired, his ability to provide a clear summary of the topics covered and his critical handling of the material. He will be expected to refer to both the exam bibliography and the texts read and discussed during the lectures.

The assessment will concentrate particularly on the skill displayed by the student in handling the sources and material in the exam bibliography and his ability to find and use information and examples to illustrate and correlate the various themes and problems addressed in the course.

The assessment will thus examine the student's:

- factual knowledge of the subject;
- ability to summarise and analyse themes and concepts;
- familiarity with the terminology associated with the subject and his ability to use it effectively.

Top marks will be awarded to a student displaying an overall understanding of the topics discussed during the lectures, combined with a critical approach to the material and a confident and effective use of the appropriate terminology.
Average marks will be awarded to a student who has memorized the main points of the material and is able to summarise them satisfactorily and provide an effective critical commentary, while failing to display a complete command of the appropriate terminology.
A student will be deemed to have failed the exam if he displays significant errors in his understanding and failure to grasp the overall outlines of the subject, together with a poor command of the appropriate terminology.

The student will have to answer for three questions concerning:

-the handbooks,

-the items discussed during the lectures.

Teaching tools

Hand-outs; ppt concerning the different studied topics.

Office hours

See the website of Daniela Rigato

SDGs

Quality education Decent work and economic growth

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.