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090056 VO Introduction to the Social History of Byzantium (2025S)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 9 - Altertumswissenschaften
Tu 11.03. 16:45-18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1

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Details

Language: English

Lecturers

    Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

    No class on 4 March and 24 June.

    • Tuesday 18.03. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
    • Tuesday 25.03. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
    • Tuesday 01.04. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
    • Tuesday 08.04. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
    • Tuesday 29.04. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
    • Tuesday 06.05. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
    • Tuesday 13.05. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
    • Tuesday 20.05. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
    • Tuesday 27.05. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
    • Tuesday 03.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
    • Tuesday 10.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
    • Tuesday 17.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1

    Information

    Aims, contents and method of the course

    This course serves as an introduction to the social history of Byzantium. Special focus will be laid on the family which constitutes the social core of all societies. In the Byzantine Middle Ages, the family—expanded by slaves and servants—also formed an economic unit, the household (oikos). As a conceptual model, the notions of family and household were also applied to the constitution of larger social entities, such as confraternities, or monasteries. This lecture course (with ample opportunity for questions and discussion) will explore these issues in different locations (cities, countryside) and different periods of the Byzantine millennium.
    Three major thematic areas will be examined:
    1. The social construction of the individual (childhood and youth, sexuality, women, men, eunuchs, marriage),
    2. The household as a social and economic unit,
    3. The family and household as models for brotherhoods, the imperial court, and monasteries.

    Assessment and permitted materials

    Introduction to fundamental aspects of Byzantine society and relevant sources, while simultaneously providing an introduction to the issues and methodology of medieval social history. Discussion of selected written and non-written sources, along with an overview of historiographical approaches in research.

    Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

    Basic knowledge of the course content.

    Examination topics

    Content of the lectures, suggested readings, independent readings.

    Reading list

    A Social History of Byzantium, ed. John Haldon (Chichester, 2009)
    The Economic History of Byzantium from the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, ed. A. Laiou (Washington, DC, 2007)
    https://www.doaks.org/resources/publications/books/the-economic-history-of-byzantium
    Byzanz. Historisch-kulturwissenschaftliches Handbuch, ed. Falko Daim (Stuttgart, 2016)
    Approaches to the Byzantine Family, ed. L. Brubaker, S. Tougher (London, 2016)
    Herlihy, D., Medieval Households (Cambridge, Mass., 1985)
    Becoming Byzantine: Children and Childhood in Byzantium, ed. A. Papaconstantinou, A.-M. Talbot (Washington, DC, 2009)
    Emotions and Gender in Byzantium, ed. S. Constantinou, M. Meyer (Palgrave, 2019)
    Managing Emotions in Byzantium: Passions, Affects and Imaginings, ed. M. Mullett, S. Ashbrook (Washington, DC, 2023)
    Ringrose, K. M., The Perfect Servant (Chicago, 2003)
    Tougher, S., The Euchuch in Byzantine History and Society (London, 2008)
    Women, Men and Eunuchs: Gender in Byzantium, ed. Liz James (London und New York, 1997)
    Betancourt, R., Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages (Princeton, 2020)
    Gerstel, S., Rural Lives and Landscapes in Late Byzantium: Art, Archaeology and Ethnography (Cambridge, 2015)
    Kondyli, F., Rural Communities in Late Byzantium: Resilience and Vulnerability in the Northern Aegean (Cambridge, 2022)
    Additional literature will be communicated in the course of the semester.

    Association in the course directory

    Last modified: Mo 13.01.2025 16:25