Open AccessFinding the Social Life of Rural Non-Elites in Roman Italy
Author(s) -
Brian Theng
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
theoretical roman archaeology journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2515-2289
DOI - 10.16995/traj.4345
Subject(s) - peasant , elite , scholarship , sociology , reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , politics , narrative , subsistence agriculture , hospitality , history , social science , political science , archaeology , literature , art , law , agriculture , tourism
Scholarship generally places peasants on a spectrum of socio-economic independence and dependence. While opinions are shifting away from subsistence, self-sufficiency, and socio-political autarky as mainstays of the peasant condition, the conventional focus on hierarchical relations persists, leaving horizontal or ‘relational’ ones neglected. To address this imbalance, I first detail our need to deal with literary (self-) representations of rural non-elite life. I use Dio Chrysostom’s Euboean discourse to develop a non-exhaustive range of peer-level interactions including hospitality, reciprocity, and cooperative work. Archaeology can help unravel how these played out, but as site 9 from the Ager Lunensis shows, we need better evidence. Nevertheless, I offer tentative possibilities about veteran interactions and the dynamics between villa and small farm workers from site 154 from the Ager Capenas and Case Nuove from the Roman Peasant Project. I close by alluding to the potential of integrating horizontal social relations in broader historical narratives.