Generationenverträge im hellenistisch-römischen Ägypten (4. Jh.v.Chr. - 7. Jh.n.Chr.)
Final Report Abstract
The project deals with a topic that constitutes one of the most crucial social issues of our times – generational relations and the support the elder generations can expect to receive from their adult children and the wider kin group, a topic that has only recently found heightened attention, due to rapid ageing societies in the Western world over the last few decades. While today functions such as education and old age support are mediated by the state, this sphere was in Graeco-Roman Egypt virtually exclusively dominated by the family and household. As the family was the nucleus of premodern societies, it was the most important institution for the health and welfare of its members, and basis for redistributing resources between generations, depending on their stage in the life cycle and their special needs and capabilities in this phase. Filial piety was critical in the absence of a public social security system. In this study we ask what were the normative ideals of interfamilial support, what the terms that governed duties and responsibilities of parents towards their children and adult children towards their elderly parents, and how did these play out under real life conditions. The study pursues these questions on the household level, the basic unit of society, which has often been described as a microcosm of society, in which social relationships, economic systems, and cultural norms find their reflection. We study the role of interfamilial support as sources of security and mutual assistance, and shed light onto the question how these patterns of mutual assistance and support were formed over the life course. The focus is directed on the middle and lower social strata as documented in our papyrological and epigraphic material from the ancient Eastern Mediterranean; the elite and upper social classes so dominating in literary accounts take a backseat. Living arrangements and household forms are closely connected with the quality and quantity of the care and support for the aged. The study discusses the physical structures of a typical household, the average number of residents, the household life cycle under the demographic regime of high fertility and mortality, differences between rural and urban regions, and inheritance patterns that affected and were shaped by prevalent household structures. The study gives an overview of the history and methodology of household studies and tries to locate the ancient eastern Mediterranean household pattern within this system.
Publications
- „Zwei neue Schriften des Plutarch? Peri polytropia und Peri polysarkia”. Hermes 134.3 (2006), 301-308
Sabine R. Huebner
- 02.-10. September 2007 „Christian Greek Epigraphy and Later Roman Society“. (XIIIth International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy. Epigraphy and the Historical Sciences. University of Oxford)
Sabine R. Huebner
- 04.-05. June 2007 „Förderung von wissenschaftlichem Nachwuchs in Ägypten und Deutschland“. (DAAD-Alumni-Meeting at the German University of Cairo)
Sabine R. Huebner
- 22.-25. March 2007 „Currencies of Power - How to Succeed in the Eastern Roman Clergy“. Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity VII: The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity (University of Colorado at Boulder)
Sabine R. Huebner
- 29. July 29 - 04. August 2007 "Therapeuteria Reconsidered". (XXV International Congress of Papyrology), The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
Sabine R. Huebner
- “Brother-Sister marriages in Roman Egypt – A Curiosity of Humankind or a Widespread Family Strategy,“. Journal of Roman Studies 97 (2007), 21-49
Sabine R. Huebner
- 03.-05. April 2008 „The role of the local clergy in municipal politics,“. Conference on "Statehood and State Formation in Late Antiquity and the Early Modern Period," Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Sabine R. Huebner
- 03.-06. January 2008 „The In-marrying Son-in-Law. Perspectives on a Family Strategy and Old Age Support in Roman Egypt“. (Panel on „Culture and Society in Graeco-Roman Egypt“, Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association, Chicago)
Sabine R. Huebner
- 09.-10. May 2008 "Household Formation and Norms of Succession and Old Age Support in Roman Egypt and Tang China,". Conference on Cross-Cultural Approaches to Family and Household Structures in the Ancient World, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York
Sabine R. Huebner
- 19. March 2008 "Therapeuteria and Female Circumcision in Roman Egypt,". I Papiri tra Testo e Contesto: Inedita da Ossirinco e da Tebtynis. Giornata di Studio all' Università di Parma, Italy
Sabine R. Huebner
- 31. March 2008 "Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt in Cross-Cultural Perspective". Università di Bologna, Italy
Sabine R. Huebner
- "Therapeuteria reconsidered. Female Circumcision in Egypt from Ancient Times until Today?,“. Journal of Egyptian History 2 (2009)
Sabine R. Huebner
- „Callirhoe’s Dilemma: Remarriage and Stepfathers in the Graeco-Roman East“. In: Hübner, S.R.; Ratzan, D.M. (eds.), Growing up Fatherless in Antiquity; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2009, 61-82
Sabine R. Huebner
- „Fatherless Antiquity? Perspectives on Fatherlessness in the Ancient Mediterranean“. In: S. R. Hübner and D. M. Ratzan (eds.), Growing up Fatherless in Antiquity; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2009 (together with D.M. Ratzan), 3-28
Sabine R. Huebner
