International Workshop!

“Social” Profiles and “Social” Groups:

Perceptions about Social Position in Byzantium

Athens, Friday 19 December 2014

Institute of Historical Research • National Hellenic Research Foundation

“Society” is a modern term that relates to the ensemble of relations among people and among distinct “social” groups. Even though in Byzantium the perception of “society” was comprised in the term “Rhomaion politeia”, the Byzantines had their own theories regarding the “position” that separate groups occupied in “society”. Definitions vary according to the point of view: an individual might be defined according to state (“constitutional”) rules within the space one lives and within the community one moves, which can be large e.g. within the palatine hierarchy, or can be quite narrow, e.g. within a village; but an individual is also defined according to perceptions that are maintained about one’s position e.g. the perceptions about descend (eugeneia, dysgeneia), or wealth, or about distinct professional groups (agrotai, pragmateutai, technitai etc) and according to perceptions that one projects about himself and his own position (e.g. one’s perception about the importance of his noble ancestry). The profiles that are thus formed are quite different from one another and affect the relations of people and groups among them. 

This divergence is the subject that will be discussed in the proposed workshop. With the purpose of sketching separate group profiles in Byzantium, of detecting definitions, self-definitions and definitions of the “other” that compose the social image of people and groups, separate protypes, social roles, hierarchies and structures will be investigated, which determine the position of people and groups in the byzantine society.

International Workshop!

Being Roman after Rome 6

Transformation of Romanness

Archaeological Perspectives (400–800 AD)

27.-28. November 2014

Institut für Mittelalterforschung • Wohllebengasse 12-14

1040 Wien

Seminarraum • Erdgeschoss

New Book!

Andreas Wimmer, Ethnic Boundary Making: Institutions, Power, Networks, Oxford 2013

Introduction (open-access)

ABSTRACT

The book introduces a new theory that overcomes essentializing approaches to ethnicity all the while avoiding the pitfalls of excessive constructivism. It suggests understanding ethnic/racial boundaries as the outcome of a negotiation process between actors who pursue different boundary making strategies, depending on institutional incentives, their position within power hierarchies, and their pre-existing networks of alliances. This theory contrast with mainstream approaches in the social sciences, where ethnic groups are often treated as self-evident units of observation and ethnic culture and solidarity as self-explanatory variables, thus overlooking the process through which certain ethnic cleavages but not others become culturally meaningful, politically salient, and associated with dense networks of solidarity. By paying systematic attention to variation in the nature of ethnic boundaries, the book also overcomes the exclusive focus on fluidity, malleability, and contextual instability that characterizes radically constructivist approaches. This book introduces a series of epistemological principles, theoretical stances, research designs, and modes of interpretation that allow to disentangle ethnic from other processes of group formation and to assess in how far ethnic boundaries structure the allocation of resources, invite political passion, and represent primary aspects of individual identity. Using a variety of qualitative and quantitative research techniques, several chapters exemplify how this agenda can be realized in concrete empirical research: on how local residents in immigrant neighborhoods draw symbolic boundaries against each other, on the ethnic and racial composition of friendship networks, and how ethnic closure influences the cultural values of Europeans.

New Book!

Derek Krueger, Liturgical Subjects: Christian Ritual, Biblical Narrative, and the Formation of the Self in Byzantium, Univ. of Pensylvania Press 2014

Liturgical Subjects examines the history of the self in the Byzantine Empire, challenging narratives of Christian subjectivity that focus only on classical antiquity and the Western Middle Ages. As Derek Krueger demonstrates, Orthodox Christian interior life was profoundly shaped by patterns of worship introduced and disseminated by Byzantine clergy. Hymns, prayers, and sermons transmitted complex emotional responses to biblical stories, particularly during Lent. Religious services and religious art taught congregants who they were in relation to God and each other.

Focusing on Christian practice in Constantinople from the sixth to eleventh centuries, Krueger charts the impact of the liturgical calendar, the eucharistic rite, hymns for vigils and festivals, and scenes from the life of Christ on the making of Christian selves. He explores the verse of great Byzantine liturgical poets, including Romanos the Melodist, Andrew of Crete, Theodore the Stoudite, and Symeon the New Theologian. Their compositions offered templates for Christian self-regard and self-criticism, defining the Christian "I." Cantors, choirs, and congregations sang in the first person singular expressing guilt and repentence, while prayers and sermons defined the collective identity of the Christian community as sinners in need of salvation. By examining the way models of selfhood were formed, performed, and transmitted in the Byzantine Empire, Liturgical Subjects adds a vital dimension to the history of the self in Western culture.

LBG online!

LBG

Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität

A COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE THESAURUS LINGUAE GRAECAE® AND THE AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Fascicles 1-6

Editor: Erich Trapp

now ONLINE