Classics 383B/Anthropology
380P/Africana Studies 383C: Race and Ethnicity in Ancient North Africa
Spring 2008
Tuesday/Thursday (2:50-4:15 PM) Student
Services Wing 327
Binghamton University, State University of New
York, Department of Classical & Near Eastern Studies
Instructor: John
H. Starks, Jr. jstarks@binghamton.edu
(607)777-4524
Library Tower 1102 -
Office hours M 12-2, Th 10-12
Synopsis: We will examine several cultures that
inhabited ancient North Africa (Egyptians, Nubians/Kushites, the Jewish
communities in Egypt, the Carthaginians, and several ethnic groups of northwest
Africa often collectively described by outsiders as "Berbers") before
and during the period of Greek and Roman influence around the Mediterranean. To
understand these diverse societies we will use the tools of cultural
anthropology: ancient Greek and Roman literary texts, native and western art
and archaeology, inscriptions, papyri, and coins, qualitative and some
quantitative analysis of data, and modern scholarly studies in ethnicity to see
how these cultures lived and how they influenced, and were influenced by, the
Greeks and Romans. We will also, at times, employ geography and physical and
linguistic anthropology to comprehend the changes in African peoples' lives
from pre-dynastic to Byzantine Egypt and from the cultures of native Numidians
to Semitic Carthage to the Christianized Roman province of Africa. Throughout
the term, we will try to find as much objective truth as we can about these
important ethnic groups and their societies, in spite of the frequent absence
of native texts and reliance on Greek and Roman perceptions of "the
other"; we will, therefore, also treat issues of imperialism, oppression,
prejudice, racism and alterity as applied to these peoples by their conquerors.
Greek and Roman ethnographic curiosity about the Mediterranean world and diverse
ethnic practices will be continually examined beside modern studies in social
science to further our awareness of how the native or early populations of
North Africa maintained or adapted their cultures under foreign rule.
Through reading and discussion of Greek (Herodotus, Polybius)
and Latin (Horace, Livy, Juvenal, Ammianus Marcellinus) authors and modern
studies of Egyptians, sub-Saharan Africans/Nubians, the Alexandrian Jewish
community, and the "Berber" tribes of North Africa, we will engage
ancient and modern conceptions of race and ethnicity daily. In this course to
build oral communication skills, students will deliver an oral paper on a topic
in classical North African ethnic studies, an original deliberative debate
speech as a member of the Carthaginian senate on the pros or cons of a third
war with Rome, and, given a proper class size, an oral final presentation
introducing a modern ethnic conflict. Peer critique and suggestions for
improved oral skills will always be given to students on these projects so that
they will know their improvement in presentation will factor into assessment of
their work. A written midterm on Northeast Africa, a short written ethnic
self-study, and daily discussion round out the grade.
Texts, Course
Requirements and Grade Distribution