{"id":89,"date":"2011-03-10T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2011-03-10T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/?p=89"},"modified":"2016-03-30T11:35:52","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T11:35:52","slug":"pia-guldager-and-jane-hjar-petersen-eds-meetings-of-cultures-in-the-black-sea-region-between-conflict-and-coexistence-aarhus-aarhus-university-press-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/06-1\/reviews61\/pia-guldager-and-jane-hjar-petersen-eds-meetings-of-cultures-in-the-black-sea-region-between-conflict-and-coexistence-aarhus-aarhus-university-press-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Pia Guldager and Jane Hjar Petersen (eds.), Meetings of cultures in the Black Sea region. Between conflict and coexistence, (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/i><\/span> <\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The cultures at issue are the native Scythian tribes, including Sarmatian ones, and the ancient Greek settlers in the Pontic Region, i.e. the vast steppe-land located in the northern and north-eastern regions of the Black Sea. This area was called Euxeinos Pontos<\/em> for most part of the Graeco-Roman age, meaning literally \u2018hospitable sea\u2019, but it was really a euphemism replacing an earlier name introduced by Pindar, Pontos Axenios<\/em>, i.e. \u2018inhospitable sea\u2019. The studies contained in the volume focus upon Pre-Roman Times, particularly from the 7th century BC, when the first Greek settlements were established, to 63 BC, i.e. the year of Mithridates the Great\u2019s death, which marks as well the beginning of the Roman predominance. The disciplines involved in this survey are historiography, archaeology, numismatic, epigraphy and ceramography.<\/p>\n

The book contains five chapters: \u201cSetting the scene\u201d, \u201cSpaces of identity\u201d, \u201cClaiming the land\u201d, \u201cThe dynamics of cultural exchange\u201d and \u201cMind the gap\u201d. The five chapters comprise nineteen articles written by eighteen different authors. Five of the published contributions were not presented at the conference: the article by P. G. Bilde in the first chapter and the articles by A. V. Karjaka, A. V. Gavrilov and T. N. Smekalova in the third chapter.<\/p>\n

It is unavoidable for us studying something like the very concept of<\/em> culture as a pragmatic category, i.e. as a truth that is such beacuse it produces practical results that satisfy us<\/em>, and not vice versa, i.e. as a truth that is such before the production of any satisfying practical result. Thus, it is important to understand that the things we can say about other cultures \u2013 whether Greek or non-Greek, sedentary or nomadic \u2013 will necessary be a product of our<\/em> culture, which establishes the criteria for practical satisfaction in the first place, that is to say, our<\/em> own complex system of expectations<\/em>. Hence we should note that, for instance, writing \u2018settler\u2019 instead of \u2018colonist\u2019 is a choice that is not inherent to those peoples that we write about, but to ourselves. These considerations certainly act on the background of the articles contained in the book, but they are not theoretically themed and discussed.<\/p>\n

In the book, the contents develop around the main aspect stated in the title of the chapter in which they appear. The three articles that form the first chapter are written by J. A. Vinogradov, P. G. Bilde and V. Mordvintseva, and they describe the historical context. In particular, Bilde\u2019s paper introduces and analyzes two very significant terms: diaspora<\/em> and hybridization<\/em>. The second chapter also includes three articles, the authors of which are P. Attema, A. Baralis, M. Vickers and A. Kakhidze, and it shows the way Greek and non-Greek groups established themselves in neighbouring areas. In Vickers\u2019 and Kakhidze\u2019s opinion this fact can be determined by the careful study of the collocation of burial sites. The five papers in the third chapter, written by J. M. H\u00f8jte, A. V. Karjaka, A. V. Gavrilov and T. N. Smekalova, explain how to look at the ancient management of land division so as to identify how far the two different cultures had been able to collaborate. The four articles that constitute the fourth chapter, authored by J. H. Petersen, N. A. Gavriljuk, L. Summerer, N. G. Novi?enkova and E. Kakhidze, examine the way differences of status and power overcame and replaced differences of ethnicity. The fifth and last chapter is composed of three papers, written by R. Osborne, D. Braund and G. Hinge, and it explains how Self<\/em> and Other<\/em> are substantially the same, since: (a) everyone can see him\/herself in the self of the other, and (b) the self needs the other\u2019s recognition to be formed. On this theoretical matter, the authors refer here in particular to Herodotus\u2019 fourth book of his Histories<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The topic of this book \u2013 i.e. the way in which the meeting of cultures <\/em>took place in antiquity \u2013 is relevant not only to classical scholars, but also to us, who live in a historical contingency certainly no longer modern, but also no longer postmodern: the dichotomy between Us<\/em> and Them<\/em>, or between Other<\/em> and Self<\/em>. This dichotomy is today even more problematic than it was only few generations ago, because it is the very concept of<\/em> dichotomy<\/em> that is being questioned. In fact, if the truth is today considered to be becoming<\/em>, i.e. walking with us<\/em>, correlatively to the practices of knowing that are embodied in our life\u2019s occasion, then every dichotomy is \u2018only\u2019 transiently true. In other words, thinking the difference between Them<\/em> and Us<\/em> becomes a practice that is theoretical, ethical, but also historical.<\/p>\n

Meeting of cultures in the Black Sea region<\/em> is recommended not only to those who just want to increase their knowledge about specific Greek communities settling in the Pontic region, but also to everyone interested in themes like the frontier<\/em>, the periphery<\/em>, the tension between wilderness <\/em>and civility<\/em>, and even in retrieving the material traces of the dynamic development of concepts like Self<\/em> and Other<\/em>, i.e. theoretical issues that are highly relevant in the age of globalization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The meetings of cultures in the Black Sea region<\/em> was the subject of the seventh international conference in Black Sea Studies, held in January 2006 by the Danish National Research Foundation\u2019s Centre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[249,250,252,251,253,254,255,112,256,257,258,259,260,261],"coauthors":[1077],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews61","tag-archaeology","tag-black-sea","tag-civility","tag-classics","tag-culture","tag-danish-national-research-foundations-centre","tag-frontier","tag-greece","tag-herodotus","tag-other","tag-periphery","tag-scythia","tag-self","tag-wilderness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1144,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/1144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}