The Gift in Antiquity

by Satlow, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781444350241
• ISBN10: 1444350242
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-04-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The Gift in Antiquity presents a collection of 14 original essays that apply French sociologist Marcel Mauss's notion of gift-giving to the study of antiquity. Covers such wide-ranging topics as vows in the Hebrew Bible; ancient Greek wedding gifts; Hellenistic civic practices; Latin literature; Roman and Jewish burial practices; and Jewish and Christian religious giftsOrganizes essays around theoretical concerns rather than chronologically Takes an explicitly cross-cultural approach to the study of ancient history

Author Biography

Michael L. Satlow is Professor of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies at Brown University.  He is the author of Creating Judaism: History, Tradition, Practice (2006); Jewish Marriage in Antiquity (2001); Rabbinic Rhetorics of Sexuality (1995) and numerous essays on Jews and Judaism in antiquity.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Michael L. Satlow

1. Ceremonial Gift-Giving: The Lessons of Anthropology with Mauss and Beyond
Marcel Hénaff

2. Alms, Blessings, Offerings: The Repertoire of Christian Gifts in Early Byzantium
Daniel F. Caner

3. Gift-Giving and Power Relationships in Greek Social Praxis and Public Discourse
Marc Domingo Gygax

4. Fictive Giftship and Fictive Friendship in Greco-Roman Society
Zeba Crook

5. Ovid Negotiates with His Mistress: Roman Reciprocity from Public to Private
Neil Coffee

6. “Can’t Buy Me Love”: The Economy of Gifts in Amorous Relations
David Konstan

7. Without Patronage: Fetishization, Representation, and the Circulation of Gift Texts in the Late Roman Republic
Sarah Stroup

8. Roses and Violets for the Ancestors: Gifts to the Dead and Ancient Roman Forms of Social Exchange
Nicola Denzey Lewis

9. Graffiti as Gift: Mortuary and Devotional Graffiti in the Late Ancient Levant
Karen Stern

10. Marriage Gifts in Ancient Greece
Beate Wagner-Hasel

11. Charity Wounds: Gifts to the Poor in Early Rabbinic Judaism
Gregg E. Gardner

12. Barter Deal or Friend-Making Gift? A Reconsideration of the Conditional Vow in the Hebrew Bible
Anne Katrine Gudme

13. Neither Mauss, nor Veyne? Peter Brown’s Interpretive Path to the Gift
Ilana Silber

14. Gifts for God, Gifts for Rabbis: From Sacrifice to Donation in Rabbinic Tales of Late Antiquity and Their Dialogue with Early Christian Texts
Galit Hasan-Rokem