Cross-Cultural Approaches to Family and Household Structures in the Ancient World
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU
May 9-10, 2008
The Fellows at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) at New York University are planning a conference entitled “Cross-cultural approaches to family and household structures in the ancient World”, May 9-10, 2008.This conference seeks to shed new light on the formation patterns and structural differences and similarities between family and household in ancient societies from the western Mediterranean to China. In an attempt to initiate conversations between ancient historians, archaeologists, and social anthropologists of all regions and periods of the ancient world, the conference welcomes papers from across disciplines.
All papers are limited to a reading time of twenty minutes. A respondent and twenty minutes of discussion will follow each panel.
Opening Remarks: Roger S. Bagnall (Director, ISAW)
Household Dynamics and Family Strategies
Walter Scheidel (Stanford University) "Monogamy and polygyny in Greece, Rome, and world history"
Judith Evans-Grubbs (Washington University) "The Dynamics of Infant Exposure: Motives, Attitudes and (Unintended) Consequences"
April Pudsey (University of Manchester) "Household Life-Cycles in Roman Egypt"
Sabine R. Huebner (ISAW) "Household Formation and Norms of Succession and Old Age Support in Cross-Cultural Perspective"
Respondent: Giovanni Ruffini (ISAW)
Houses, Households, and Social Groups
Rod Campbell (ISAW) "Seeing Like a State in Early China: Kin Groups, Households and the State from the Late Shang to the Western Han (ca. 1250 BC to 9 AD)"
Heather D. Baker (Institut für Orientalistik, Universität Wien) "Family, household and neighborhood structure in Hellenistic Babylonia"
Robert B. Koehl (Hunter College, CUNY) "A House is Not a Home: In Search of the Minoan Family"
Anna Lucille Boozer (ISAW) "Neighborhoods and Domestic Contexts from Roman Trimithis, Egypt"
Respondent: Sabine Huebner (ISAW)
Economy of the Household
Edward Stratford (University of Chicago) "Pusu-ken in and around the House: Exploring Issues of Demography and Prosopography in the Old Assyrian Evidence (1900-1845 B.C.)"
David Hollander (Iowa State University) "Market Dependency and the Roman Farm Household"
Christine K. Kimbrough (Independent Scholar) "Weaving Workshops: Households and Textile Production in 3rd Millennium BCE Northern Mesopotamia"
Jonathan S. Tenney (University of Chicago) "Families of the Lowest Classes under the Kassite Kings"
Respondent: Rod Campbell (ISAW)
Conceptualizing the Family
John Nielsen (University of Chicago) "Uruk Families and Professions"
Mireille Corbier (Centre National de la Recherche scientifique) "Domus Augusta: the case that does not fit"
Rachel Mairs (ISAW) "Intermarriage, Ethnicity and Bilingualism in the Hellenistic World"
Ann-Cathrin Harders (Universität Freiburg) "Kinship Terminology and Household Structures in Homeric Greece and Classical Athens - An Anthropological Approach"
Respondent: Kevin van Bladel (ISAW)
Religion in the Household
Guenther Schoerne (Universität Jena) "The Religious Construction of 'Household' in Roman Italy"
Gil P. Klein (University of Michigan) "Studying Torah in Heavenly triclinia: the Architecture of Graeco-Roman Households in the Galilee and the Formation of Rabbinic Judaism"
Jenn Cianca (University of Toronto) "Religious Coexistence in the Roman House: the Domestic Cult and Early Christian Meeting Places"
Respondent: Jinyu Liu (ISAW)
Inquiries may be sent to Anna Boozer, Sabine Huebner, or Jinyu Liu at:
ISAW - Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
15 East 84th Street
New York, NY 10028
Email: isaw.household.conference@nyu.edu