Getting around in a byzantine village : social network and financial activities in sixth century Aphrodito
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- For more than a century, the papyrological archives from the Byzantine village of Aphrodito have contributed the key evidence for our understanding of socio-economic life in Late Antique Egypt. However, most research still combines evidence from the village with that of Apions' archives from Oxyrhynchus to analyze economic patterns in Late Antiquity. The financial activities and conditions in the micro-landscape of Aphrodito are still in want of a dedicated study. My dissertation, accordingly, examines financial status and economic activities in Aphrodito through the political structure and the village's social networks. It focuses on two main aspects of village financial life- taxation and land tenure. Tax and rental receipts, lease contracts, and account books constitute a major part of the Aphroditan archives. In these documents, villagers' positions in the land market and the fiscal system also reflected their social, political, and ��nancial positions. Related documents, as a result, can be helpful for tracing the transformation of other powers (prestige, bureaucratic authorities, religious power) to financial advantages or vice versa in the village context. Instead of analyzing only the political and economic hierarchies, my study relies on social network analysis to tease out how the community of either equal or hierarchical actors assists or limits different social tiers' financial capabilities. A detailed study of the interactions of landlords and their managing teams also reveals the mechanisms of both wealth accumulation and estate maintenance. The available strategies of property accumulation and tiers of social hierarchy, I argue, determined the balanced financial status of Aphrodito, where no large landlord had the absolute upper hand.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2022; ©2022 |
| Publication date | 2022; 2022 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Shi, Chenye |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Scheidel, Walter, 1966- |
| Thesis advisor | Scheidel, Walter, 1966- |
| Thesis advisor | Fournet, Jean-Luc |
| Thesis advisor | Morris, Ian, 1960- |
| Thesis advisor | Saller, Richard P |
| Thesis advisor | Woytek, Bernhard |
| Degree committee member | Fournet, Jean-Luc |
| Degree committee member | Morris, Ian, 1960- |
| Degree committee member | Saller, Richard P |
| Degree committee member | Woytek, Bernhard |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Classics |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Chenye (Peter) Shi. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Classics. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/hd929jd5084 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2022 by Chenye Shi
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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