Writing and the Ancient State

Writing and the Ancient State PDF Author: Haicheng Wang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107028124
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
Writing and the Ancient State is a comparative study of the use of writing to create and maintain order in early states.

Writing and the Ancient State

Writing and the Ancient State PDF Author: Haicheng Wang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107028124
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 435

Get Book Here

Book Description
Writing and the Ancient State is a comparative study of the use of writing to create and maintain order in early states.

Writing and the Ancient State

Writing and the Ancient State PDF Author: Haicheng Wang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107785871
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
Writing and the Ancient State explores the early development of writing and its relationship to the growth of political structures. The first part of the book focuses on the contribution of writing to the state's legitimating project. The second part deals with the state's use of writing in administration, analyzing both textual and archaeological evidence to reconstruct how the state used bookkeeping to allocate land, police its people, and extract taxes from them. The third part focuses on education, the state's system for replenishing its staff of scribe-officials. The first half of each part surveys evidence from Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Maya lowlands, Central Mexico, and the Andes; against this background the second half examines the evidence from China. The chief aim of this book is to shed new light on early China (from the second millennium BC through the end of the Han period, ca. 220 AD) while bringing to bear the lens of cross-cultural analysis on each of the civilizations under discussion.

Writing Ancient History

Writing Ancient History PDF Author: Neville Morley
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801486333
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
How do ancient historians pursue their craft? From the evidence of coins, pottery shards, remains of buildings, works of art, and, above all, literary texts--all of which have survived more or less accidentally from antiquity--they fashion works of history. But how exactly do they go about reconstructing and representing the past? How should history be written? These and related questions are the subject of Neville Morley's engaging introduction to the theory and philosophy of history. Intended for students and teachers not only of ancient history but of historiography, the philosophy of history, and classics, his book addresses the implications of debates over methodological and theoretical issues for the practice of ancient history. At the present time, Morley says, students of ancient history are left to come to their own understanding of the field through a process of trial and error. In his view, too many professors regard "questions of theory and methodology... as pointless distractions from the business of actually doing history. Worse, [these questions] may even be perceived as a threat to the subject." Asserting that more attention must be given to fundamental matters, Morley considers such topics as the nature of historical narrative, style in historical writing, the use and abuse of sources, and the reasons for studying history.

Women's Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia

Women's Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia PDF Author: Charles Halton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110705205X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
This anthology translates and discusses texts authored by women of ancient Mesopotamia.

Writing and the Ancient State

Writing and the Ancient State PDF Author: Dr Haicheng Wang
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781107785564
Category : HISTORY
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
Writing and the Ancient State is a comparative study of the use of writing to create and maintain order in early states.

Language, Literacy, and Technology

Language, Literacy, and Technology PDF Author: Richard Kern
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107036488
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Language, Literacy, and Technology explores how technology matters to language and the ways we use it.

Agency in Ancient Writing

Agency in Ancient Writing PDF Author: Joshua Englehardt
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1607322099
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Individual agents are frequently evident in early writing and notational systems, yet these systems have rarely been subjected to the concept of agency as it is traceable in archeology. Agency in Ancient Writing addresses this oversight, allowing archeologists to identify and discuss real, observable actors and actions in the archaeological record. Embracing myriad ways in which agency can be interpreted, ancient writing systems from Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, China, and Greece are examined from a textual perspective as both archaeological objects and nascent historical documents. This allows for distinction among intentions, consequences, meanings, and motivations, increasing understanding and aiding interpretation of the subjectivity of social actors. Chapters focusing on acts of writing and public recitation overlap with those addressing the materiality of texts, interweaving archaeology, epigraphy, and the study of visual symbol systems. Agency in Ancient Writing leads to a more thorough and meaningful discussion of agency as an archaeological concept and will be of interest to anyone interested in ancient texts, including archaeologists, historians, linguists, epigraphers, and art historians, as well as scholars studying agency and structuration theory.

The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society

The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society PDF Author: Jack Goody
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521339629
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Author is particularly concerned with ancient Near East and contemporary West Africa.

The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean

The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean PDF Author: Peter Fibiger Bang
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199397376
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean offers a comprehensive survey of ancient state formation in western Eurasia and North Africa. Eighteen experts introduce readers to a wide variety of systems spanning 4,000 years, from the earliest known states in world history to the Roman Empire and its immediate successors. They seek to understand the inner workings of these states by focusing on key issues: political and military power, the impact of ideologies, the rise and fall of individual polities, and the mechanisms of cooperation, coercion, and exploitation. This shared emphasis on critical institutions and dynamics invites comparative and cross-cultural perspectives. A detailed introductory review of contemporary approaches to the study of the state puts the rich historical case studies in context. Transcending conventional boundaries between ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean history and between ancient and early medieval history, this volume will be of interest not only to historians but also anthropologists, archaeologists, sociologists, and political scientists. Its accessible style and up-to-date references will make it an invaluable resource for both students and scholars.

The Politics of Latin Literature

The Politics of Latin Literature PDF Author: Thomas N. Habinek
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400822513
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
This is the first book to describe the intimate relationship between Latin literature and the politics of ancient Rome. Until now, most scholars have viewed classical Latin literature as a product of aesthetic concerns. Thomas Habinek shows, however, that literature was also a cultural practice that emerged from and intervened in the political and social struggles at the heart of the Roman world. Habinek considers major works by such authors as Cato, Cicero, Horace, Ovid, and Seneca. He shows that, from its beginnings in the late third century b.c. to its eclipse by Christian literature six hundred years later, classical literature served the evolving interests of Roman and, more particularly, aristocratic power. It fostered a prestige dialect, for example; it appropriated the cultural resources of dominated and colonized communities; and it helped to defuse potentially explosive challenges to prevailing values and authority. Literature also drew upon and enhanced other forms of social authority, such as patriarchy, religious ritual, cultural identity, and the aristocratic procedure of self-scrutiny, or existimatio. Habinek's analysis of the relationship between language and power in classical Rome breaks from the long Romantic tradition of viewing Roman authors as world-weary figures, aloof from mundane political concerns--a view, he shows, that usually reflects how scholars have seen themselves. The Politics of Latin Literature will stimulate new interest in the historical context of Latin literature and help to integrate classical studies into ongoing debates about the sociology of writing.