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Airs, Waters, Metals, Earth: People and Environment in Archaic and Classical Greek Thought
- Author(s):
- Rebecca Kennedy (see profile)
- Date:
- 2016
- Group(s):
- Ancient Greece & Rome
- Subject(s):
- Greece, History, Ancient, Environmental conditions, Ethnohistory, Intellectual life, History
- Item Type:
- Book chapter
- Tag(s):
- Ancient Greek history, Classical studies, Environmental history, Intellectual history
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6S76Z
- Abstract:
- This chapter provides a series of case studies that explore different ways Archaic and Classical Greeks conceptualized human diversity (modern race and/or ethnicity) in relation to environment, in particular, the land. It explores three inter-related approaches the Greeks took towards understanding this relationship: myths of metals, autochthony, and environmental determinism. I argue that these approaches to the relationship binding human and land attempt to rationalize human difference in a way that privileges indigenous status as well as hereditary superiority. This rationalization might be considered a type of “proto-social Darwinism,” a organization of human diversity that ranks peoples on a scale from superior to inferior based on a normative standard and/or “purity.” This scale derives either from environmental metaphors or in direct relationship to the environment itself.
- Notes:
- First proof--numerous typographical errors.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Book chapter
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 6 years ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
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