The Oxford Handbook Of Childhood And Education In The Classical World

The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Classical World is a comprehensive and forward-thinking study of an expanding subfield in classical studies

With a focus on science in the ancient societies of Greece and Rome, including glimpses into Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China, 'The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World' offers an in depth synthesis of science and medicine circa 650 BCE to 650 CE. 0The Handbook comprises five sections, each with a specific focus on ancient science and medicine. The Handbook provides through each of its approximately four dozen essays, a synthesis and synopsis of the concepts and models of the various ancient natural sciences, covering the early Greek era through the fall of the Roman Republic, including essays that explore topics such as music theory, ancient philosophers, astrology, and alchemy.

Over several decades, scholarship in New Testament and early Christianity has drawn attention both to the ways in which ancient Mediterranean conceptions of embodiment, sexual difference, and desire were fundamentally different from modern ones and also to important lines of genealogical connection between the past and the present. The result is that the study of "gender" and "sexuality" in early Christianity has become an increasingly complex undertaking. This is a complexity produced not only by the intricacies of conflicting historical data, but also by historicizing approaches that query the very terms of analysis whereby we inquire into these questions in the first place. Yet at the same time, recent work on these topics has produced a rich and nuanced body of scholarly literature that has contributed substantially to our understanding of early Christian history and also proved relevant to ongoing theological and social debates. The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in the New Testament provides a roadmap to this lively scholarly landscape, introducing both students and other scholars to the relevant problems, debates, and issues. Leading scholars in the field offer original contributions by way of synthesis, critical interrogation, and proposals for future questions, hypotheses, and research trajectories.

This collection employs a multi-disciplinary approach treating ancient childhood in a holistic manner according to diachronic, regional and thematic perspectives. This multi-disciplinary approach encompasses classical studies, Egyptology, ancient history and the broad spectrum of archaeology, including iconography and bioarchaeology. With a chronological range of the Bronze Age to Byzantium and regional coverage of Egypt, Greece, and Italy this is the largest survey of childhood yet undertaken for the ancient world. Within this chronological and regional framework both the social construction of childhood and the child’s life experience are explored through the key topics of the definition of childhood, daily life, religion and ritual, death, and the information provided by bioarchaeology. No other volume to date provides such a comprehensive, systematic and cross-cultural study of childhood in the ancient Mediterranean world. In particular, its focus on the identification of society-specific definitions of childhood and the incorporation of the bioarchaeological perspective makes this work a unique and innovative study. Children in Antiquity provides an invaluable and unrivalled resource for anyone working on all aspects of the lives and deaths of children in the ancient Mediterranean world.

Real understanding of past societies is not possible without including children, and yet they have been strangely invisible in the archaeological record. Compelling explanation about past societies cannot be achieved without including and investigating children and childhood. However marginal the traces of children's bodies and bricolage may seem compared to adults, archaeological evidence of children and childhood can be found in the most astonishing places and spaces. The archaeology of childhood is one of the most exciting and challenging areas for new discovery about past societies. Children are part of every human society, but childhood is a cultural construct. Each society develops its own idea about what a childhood should be, what children can or should do, and how they are trained to take their place in the world. Children also play a part in creating the archaeological record itself. In this volume, experts from around the world ask questions about childhood - thresholds of age and growth, childhood in the material culture, the death of children, and the intersection of the childhood and the social, economic, religious, and political worlds of societies in the past.

Sport and spectacle in the ancient world has become a vital area of broad new exploration over the last few decades. This Handbook brings together the latest research on Greek and Roman manifestations of these pastimes to explore current approaches and open exciting new avenues of inquiry. It discusses historical perspectives, contest forms, contest-related texts, civic and social aspects, and use and meaning of the individual body. Greek and Roman topics are interwoven to simulate contest-like tensions and complementarities, juxtaposing, for example, violence in Greek athletics and Roman gladiatorial events, Greek and Roman chariot events, architectural frameworks for contests and games in the two cultures, and contrasting views of religion, bodily regimens, and judicial classification related to both cultures. It examines the social contexts of games, namely the evolution of sport and spectacle across cultural and political boundaries, and how games are adapted to multiple contexts and multiple purposes, reinforcing social hierarchies, performing shared values, and playing out deep cultural tensions. The volume also considers other directing forces in the ancient Mediterranean, such as Bronze Age Egypt and the Near East, Etruria, and early Christianity. It addresses important themes common to both antiquity and modern society, such as issues of class, gender, and health, as well as the popular culture of the modern Olympics and gladiators in cinema. With innovative perspectives from authoratative scholars on a wide range of topics, this Handbook will appeal to both students and researchers interested in ancient history, literature, sports, and games.

This handbook offers a global view of the historical development of educational institutions, systems of schooling, ideas about education, and educational experiences. Its 36 chapters consider changing scholarship in the field, examine nationally-oriented works by comparing themes and approaches, lend international perspective on a range of issues in education, and provide suggestions for further research and analysis. Like many other subfields of historical analysis, the history of education has been deeply affected by global processes of social and political change, especially since the 1960s. The handbook weighs the influence of various interpretive perspectives, including revisionist viewpoints, taking particular note of changes in the past half century. Contributors consider how schooling and other educational experiences have been shaped by the larger social and political context, and how these influences have affected the experiences of students, their families and the educators who have worked with them. The Handbook provides insight and perspective on a wide range of topics, including pre-modern education, colonialism and anti-colonial struggles, indigenous education, minority issues in education, comparative, international, and transnational education, childhood education, non-formal and informal education, and a range of other issues. Each contribution includes endnotes and a bibliography for readers interested in further study.

Children and Everyday Life in the Roman and Late Antique World explores what it meant to be a child in the Roman world - what were children’s concerns, interests and beliefs - and whether we can find traces of children’s own cultures. By combining different theoretical approaches and source materials, the contributors explore the environments in which children lived, their experience of everyday life, and what the limits were for their agency. The volume brings together scholars of archaeology and material culture, classicists, ancient historians, theologians, and scholars of early Christianity and Judaism, all of whom have long been involved in the study of the social and cultural history of children. The topics discussed include children's living environments; clothing; childhood care; social relations; leisure and play; health and disability; upbringing and schooling; and children's experiences of death. While the main focus of the volume is on Late Antiquity its coverage begins with the early Roman Empire, and extends to the early ninth century CE. The result is the first book-length scrutiny of the agency and experience of pre-modern children.