The social context of literacy in Archaic Greece and Etruria

Antiquity ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (237) ◽  
pp. 761-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Stoddart ◽  
James Whitley

In recent years much emphasis has been placed upon the effects of literacy in the transformation of the Mediterranean World between 800 and 400 BC. Alphabetic scripts have been seen by many, archaeologists and classicists alike, as one of the key factors that made many of the achievements of Mediterranean, particularly Greek, thought and culture possible. Alphabetic scripts encouraged widespread literacy, and widespread literacy was the necessary condition for what remains distinctive in Ancient Greek culture, namely the development of History, Philosophy and speculative Natural Science. Murray (1980: 96) is typical in his view that ‘Archaic Greece was a literate society in the modern sense.’ The work of Goody & Watt (1963) has done much to advance the view that many of the achievements of Mediterranean Society can be ascribed to, if not entirely explained by, this ‘technology of the intellect’. Their ‘autonomous model’ however, as Cartledge (1978: 37) has observed, comes dangerously close to technological determinism.


2002 ◽  
Vol 43 (105) ◽  
pp. 19-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Feres Jr

This article starts by identifying the crucial importance of the notion of historical handicap for the present-day social sciences of Latin America. Such notion is not an original invention made by Latinamericanists. On the contrary, I demonstrate that the genealogy of the notion of historical handicap must be sought in the tradition of Western political philosophy. Such genealogy must take into account the way it was integrated into ethnological descriptions. When and how did the Other become the backward, the primitive? While this relation was secondary for ancient Greek thought, theories of historical development became the main source of ethnological categories in the modern era. Interestingly enough, this modern synthesis suited the practical purpose of justifying two successive waves of European imperialistic: the era of discoveries, and 19th century colonialism. The article concludes by raising questions about the present role and application of the social sciences.



Author(s):  
Айгуль Фаридовна Чупилкина

Автор формулирует предложение для научного дискурса по поводу чрезвычайно актуального и необходимого для Российского государства феномена социального государства. Поднят вопрос единого представления о генезисе социального государства и его критериях. Исторические примеры, в которых показаны реализация и последствия социальных законов в различной государственной и общественной «почве», помогают определить место и разумное применение элементов социального государства в современной российской государственности. Жизнеспособные элементы для распределения этапов эволюции социального государства имеют аргументы различных авторов. На основании проведенного анализа четкость критериев периодизации генезиса социального государства предложено обозначить как совокупность (систему) признаков, перечисленных в настоящей статье. Сформулированная совокупность (система) признаков позволила утверждать, что зародилось социальное государство в эпоху Античной Греции. Более того, древнегреческая мысль в принципе оказала влияние на юридическое мировоззрение прошлого, настоящего и будущего. Здесь впервые использованы основные понятия теории государства и права, что на сегодняшний день является основой теоретических знаний правоведа. Уголовно-исполнительная система является социальным институтом, что обусловливает важность трактовки тематики истории и теории социального государства. The author formulates a proposal for scientific discourse, due to the unsolved, but extremely relevant and necessary for the Russian state, the phenomenon of the social state. The question of a unified idea of the genesis of the social state and its criteria is raised. Illustrative historical examples in which are the implementation and consequences of social laws help to determine the place and reasonable application of the elements of the social state in modern Russian statehood. The arguments of various authors have viable elements for the distribution of the stages of the evolution of the social state. Based on the analysis, the clarity of the criteria for the periodization of the genesis of the social state is proposed to be designated as a set (system) of the features listed in this article. The formulated set (system) of features allowed us to assert that the origins of the social state have their roots in the era of Ancient Greece. In addition, ancient Greek thought in principle influenced the legal worldview of the past, present and future. Here, for the first time, the basic concepts of the theory of state and law are used, which today is the basis of the theoretical knowledge of a jurist. The penal system is a social institution, which determines the importance of interpreting the topics of history and the theory of the social state.



2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 190-208
Author(s):  
Cordell M. Waldron

Does the central role of the Iliad and the Odyssey in ancient Greek culture indicate that they functioned as scripture? Taking the role of the Tanakh in Jewish culture as the standard of comparison, this essay argues that, while the Tanakh and the epics functioned similarly as foundational texts in their respective cultures, the ways in which Homer was used in Hellenic culture differ markedly from the ways in which the Tanakh was used in ancient Jewish culture. The Homeric epics were primarily thought of as orally delivered or performed events throughout most of their history, only coming to be thought of as primarily written texts in the Hellenistic era and later, whereas almost from its origins the Tanakh commands and exemplifies a textcentered community in which that which is written is most important.



2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (10) ◽  
pp. 2378-2381
Author(s):  
Cristian Budacu ◽  
Mihai Constantin ◽  
Iulia Chiscop ◽  
Carmen Gabriela Stelea ◽  
Raluca Dragomir

Post-operative alveolitis is a topical issue in dental practice, which is also reflected by the etiopathogenic aspects. The conservative principle requires the maintenance of dento-periodontal units in the arch for as long as possible, but there are situations where dental extraction is required. The healing process of the post-surgical wound is complex and involves processes of gingival mucosal regeneration and bone reshaping, involving several local factors: wound size, presence of infection, alveolar vascularization, intraalveolar foreign bodies, and general factors, especially general condition, age and body reactivity. The quality, structure, maintenance, and retraction of the clot are key factors in the formation of connective tissue during the healing of the post-extraction would. At the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic of Gala�i, during a 2-year period between January 2015 and December 30, 2016, 2780 patients that required surgery - dental extraction were consulted and diagnosed. We found that among those 2780 patients with dental extractions 105 (3.77%) had post-treatment alveolitis. No post-surgical alveolitis from the case study was complicated by osteomyelitis of the jaws or by suppurations of the superficial or deep compartments of the face. The prophylactic measures in each dental extraction, together with the correct and timely curative treatment, combined with the dentist�s competence and responsibility, can shorten the time of suffering, actively combating the risk factor and accelerating the social reintegration of the patient with post-treatment alveolitis.



Author(s):  
Beth Hatt

The legacy of the social construction of race, class, and gender within the social construction of smartness and identity in US schools are synthesized utilizing meta-ethnography. The study examines ethnographies of smartness and identity while also exploring what meta-ethnography has to offer for qualitative research. The analyses demonstrate that race, class, and gender are key factors in how student identities of ability or smartness are constructed within schools. The meta-ethnography reveals a better understanding of the daily, sociocultural processes in schools that contribute to the denial of competence to students across race, class, and gender. Major themes include epistemologies of schooling, learning as the production of identity, and teacher power in shaping student identities. The results are significant in that new insights are revealed into how gender, class, and racial identities develop within the daily practices of classrooms about notions of ability.



Author(s):  
Susan E. Whyman

The introduction shows the convergence and intertwining of the Industrial Revolution and the provincial Enlightenment. At the centre of this industrial universe lay Birmingham; and at its centre was Hutton. England’s second city is described in the mid-eighteenth century, and Hutton is used as a lens to explore the book’s themes: the importance of a literate society shared by non-elites; the social category of ‘rough diamonds’; how individuals responded to economic change; political participation in industrial towns; shifts in the modes of authorship; and an analysis of social change. The strategy of using microhistory, biography, and the history of the book is discussed, and exciting new sources are introduced. The discovery that self-education allowed unschooled people to participate in literate society renders visible people who were assumed to be illiterate. This suggests that eighteenth-century literacy was greater than statistics based on formal schooling indicate.



Author(s):  
Iain McLean

This chapter reviews the many appearances, disappearances, and reappearances of axiomatic thought about social choice and elections since the era of ancient Greek democracy. Social choice is linked to the wider public-choice movement because both are theories of agency. Thus, just as the first public-choice theorists include Hobbes, Hume, and Madison, so the first social-choice theorists include Pliny, Llull, and Cusanus. The social-choice theory of agency appears in many strands. The most important of these are binary vs. nonbinary choice; aggregation of judgement vs. aggregation of opinion; and selection of one person vs. selection of many people. The development of social choice required both a public-choice mindset and mathematical skill.



2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1193
Author(s):  
Anna Podara ◽  
Dimitrios Giomelakis ◽  
Constantinos Nicolaou ◽  
Maria Matsiola ◽  
Rigas Kotsakis

This paper casts light on cultural heritage storytelling in the context of interactive documentary, a hybrid media genre that employs a full range of multimedia tools to document reality, provide sustainability of the production and successful engagement of the audience. The main research hypotheses are enclosed in the statements: (a) the interactive documentary is considered a valuable tool for the sustainability of cultural heritage and (b) digital approaches to documentary storytelling can provide a sustainable form of viewing during the years. Using the Greek interactive documentary (i-doc) NEW LIFE (2013) as a case study, the users’ engagement is evaluated by analyzing items from a seven-year database of web metrics. Specifically, we explore the adopted ways of the interactive documentary users to engage with the storytelling, the depth to which they were involved along with the most popular sections/traffic sources and finally, the differences between the first launch period and latest years were investigated. We concluded that interactivity affordances of this genre enhance the social dimension of cultural, while the key factors for sustainability are mainly (a) constant promotion with transmedia approach; (b) data-driven evaluation and reform; and (c) a good story that gathers relevant niches, with specific interest to the story.



Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 74
Author(s):  
Cristina Guardiano ◽  
Melita Stavrou

In this paper, we investigate patterns of persistence and change affecting the syntax of nominal structures in Italiot Greek in comparison to Modern (and Ancient) Greek, and we explore the role of Southern Italo-Romance as a potential source of interference. Our aim is to highlight the dynamics that favor syntactic contact in this domain: we provide an overview of the social context where these dynamics have taken place and of the linguistic structures involved.



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