Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China

by: Beck, H. Vankeerberghen, G.

Price: 142,27 EURO

1 copy in stock

Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China
Part of Antiquity in Global Context

Editors:Hans Beck, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, GermanyGriet Vankeerberghen, McGill University, Montréal
Hans Beck, Griet Vankeerberghen, Amy Russell, Luke Habberstad, Taco Terpstra, Darian Marie Totten, Zhou Yiqun, Chandra Giroux, Ryan R. Abrecht, Martin Mohr, Jordan Christopher, Wentian Fu, Alex McAuley, Charles Sanft, Tian Tian, Armin Selbitschka

This book examines the construction of space and place in early China and the ancient Mediterranean through the lens of performances conducted in specific locations. It highlights conceptions of place and performance, seeing both as crucial to the production of cultural meaning and communal cohesion, and as heavily dependent on the prevailing political culture. Whether urban or rural, global or local, central or fringe, public or private, real or imagined, theatrical or ritual, the places and performances highlighted serve to show both commonalities and differences between the ancient Mediterranean and early China. The range of places of comparison is also very diverse, including roads, gardens, neighbourhoods, hydraulic infrastructures, funerary performance, spectacles at court, and the everyday display of authority through clothing and fashion. 

Contributes to the flourishing of comparative approaches to ancient cultures
Each chapter tackles its topic in a comparative manner, including, on the one hand, early China, on the other, ancient Greece and/or Rome
The act of comparison often reveals unexpected features of one area through exploration of the other

Table of Contents
List of figures
List of contributors
Series editors' preface
Editors' preface
Introduction: place and performance. Comparative remarks on Greece, Rome, and China Hans Beck and Griet Vankeerberghen
Part I. Crafting Space and Place:
1. Theories of place across time and space: urban form in Ancient Rome and Han China Amy Russell
2. Local administration, history, and geography in the Han and Roman Empires: Ban Gu's Dili Zhi and Strabo's Geographika Luke Habberstad
Part II. Performances of Power:
3. Power and its trappings in the Han and Roman Bureaucracies Taco Terpstra
4. The 'Performance' of agricultural labor in Ancient Rome and Han China Darian Marie Totten
5. Foreigners, spectacles, and imperial performance: Nero and emperor Wu of the Han Zhou Yiqun
6. The maiden and the mirror: exploring aspects of gendered social performance in the works of Plutarch and Sima Qian Chandra Giroux
Part III. Urban Places:
7. Neighborhood life in Imperial Rome and Han Chang'an Ryan R. Abrecht
8. Society, cities, and the significance of 'Sacred Roads' in Archaic Greece, in the Chinese Qin and Han Empires and in the Archaic States of the Middle East Martin Mohr
9. Hydropolitical engineering in Rome and Chang'an. Water flows in the shape of power Jordan Christopher
10. Imperial gardens in Early Roman and Chinese Empires: a comparative study Wentian Fu
Part IV. Fringe Places and Endpoints:
11. Imitating the emperor? Cities and client kings in the Hellenistic East and the Western Regions of the Han Realm Alex McAuley
12. Traces of Han and Roman Frontiers: documents from Vindolanda and Jianshui Jinguan Charles Sanft
13. Money and the dead: coins and other money in Han Chinese and Imperial Roman Tombs and Funerals Tian Tian
14. Displaying the dead: funeral processions, tombs, performance and place in Ancient Rome and China Armin Selbitschka
Index.

Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China

by: Beck, H. Vankeerberghen, G.

• ISBN-13: 9781009390026 / 978-1-009-39002-6
• ISBN-03: 1009390023 / 1-00-939002-3
• Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2024

Price: 142,27 EURO

1 copy in stock