Skip over navigation

Course Offerings

Course Details

Fall 2012-2013
ART 416 / ANT 418 / HLS 416 (LA)  

Understanding the "Barbarians": Discovering Ethnicity in Ancient History, Art, and Archaeology

Kate Liszka

Civilizations of ancient history, like Egypt, Greece, Rome and Mesopotamia, incorporated small ethnic groups who significantly influenced their society, history, and worldview. Yet they are often minimized in the study of the past because they had only a marginal effect on the sources that the large civilizations left behind. In this course we will examine their art, archaeology, and texts to understand the role of the peripheral "barbarians" on the past and how their ethnicity changed history. In a series of case studies we will analyze how ancient peoples created their own ethnicities and how other groups applied ethnic stereotypes to them.

Sample reading list:
Fredrik Barth, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries
Margarita Díaz-Andreu and Sam Lucy, The Archaeology of Identity: Approaches to Gender, Age...
Herodotus and Littlebury Isaac, The Histories
Stuart Tyson Smith, Wretched Kush: Ethnic Identities and Boundaries
Greg Woolf, Becoming Roman: The Origins of Provincial Civilization
See instructor for complete list

Reading/Writing assignments:
Students will read mostly book chapters and articles and examine some primary sources (up to 100 pages per week). Students will complete several short reactionary papers to the related readings assigned, will lead two discussions on particular topics during the course, and will write a 15 page thesis-driven paper on the construction and expression of a specific ethnic group in Ancient History.

Requirements/Grading:
Paper in lieu of Final - 25%
Papers - 25%
Oral Presentation(s) - 25%
Class/Precept Participation - 25%

Other Requirements:
Open to Juniors and Seniors Only.

Other information:
For department majors, satisfies Ancient distribution requirement.

Schedule/Classroom assignment:

Class numberSectionTimeDaysRoomEnrollmentStatus
22943 S01 1:30 pm - 4:20 pm Th   McCormick Hall   104   Enrolled:3 Limit:12