Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East
Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East

Author: John Weisweiler

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0197647170

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In his Debt: The First 5000 Years, the anthropologist David Graeber put forward a new grand narrative of world history. From the Late Bronze Age onwards, all across the Near East and Mediterranean, relationships of mutual obligation were transformed into quantifiable and legally enforceable debts. Graeber suggests that this transformation made possible new economic institutions, such as IOUs, coinage, and chattel slavery. It also led to the emergence of modes of thought that have shaped Eurasian philosophical and religious traditions ever since. Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East explores the implications of this theory for the history of the Mediterranean and Near East. A distinguished group of ancient historians assesses how well Graeber's interpretations fit current understandings of ancient and late antique economies. At the same time, this volume offers a history of premodern credit systems which takes seriously the dual nature of debt as both quantifiable economic reality and immeasurable social obligation. By exploring the diverse ways in which social relationships were quantified in different ancient and late antique societies, the work introduces a method of writing the history of premodern systems of exchange that departs from the currently dominant paradigm of neo-institutional economics.

Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East
Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East

Author: John Weisweiler

Publisher:

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780197647189

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In his Debt: The First 5000 Years, the anthropologist David Graeber put forward a new grand narrative of world history. In Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East, John Weisweiler explores the implications of this theory for historians of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. On the one hand, it assesses how well the interpretations advanced in Debt fit current understandings of ancient economies. On the other hand, it sketches a history of ancient credit systems which takes seriously the dual nature of debt as both quantifiable economic reality and immeasurable social obligatio.

Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East
Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East

Author: John Weisweiler

Publisher:

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780197647196

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"This volume reconsiders the economic history of the ancient and late ancient Mediterranean and Near East from the perspective of David Graeber's anthropological theory. It pursues two purposes. On the one hand, it tests the accuracy of the grand narrative put forward in his 2011 monograph Debt: The First 5000 Years. Does the concept of a 'currency-slavery-warfare complex', in which monetization, state formation and the subjection of new fields of life to the logic of the market go hand in hand, shed new light on the political economies of the Near East and Mediterranean from around 700 BCE to 700 CE? On the other hand, this volume offers a history of ancient and late ancient credit systems which takes seriously the dual nature of debt as both a quantifiable economic reality and an immeasurable social obligation. By examining the multiplicity of ways in which social relationships were quantified in different societies, it tries out a method of writing the history of pre-modern systems of exchange that departs from the currently dominant paradigm of neo-institutional economics"--

Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean
Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean

Author: Taco Terpstra

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-04-09

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0691172080

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How ancient Mediterranean trade thrived through state institutions From around 700 BCE until the first centuries CE, the Mediterranean enjoyed steady economic growth through trade, reaching a level not to be regained until the early modern era. This process of growth coincided with a process of state formation, culminating in the largest state the ancient Mediterranean would ever know, the Roman Empire. Subsequent economic decline coincided with state disintegration. How are the two processes related? In Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean, Taco Terpstra investigates how the organizational structure of trade benefited from state institutions. Although enforcement typically depended on private actors, traders could utilize a public infrastructure, which included not only courts and legal frameworks but also socially cohesive ideologies. Terpstra details how business practices emerged that were based on private order, yet took advantage of public institutions. Focusing on the activity of both private and public economic actors—from Greek city councilors and Ptolemaic officials to long-distance traders and Roman magistrates and financiers—Terpstra illuminates the complex relationship between economic development and state structures in the ancient Mediterranean.

Law and (Dis)Order in the Ancient Near East
Law and (Dis)Order in the Ancient Near East

Author: Katrien De Graef

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2021-05-27

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 1646021207

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Mesopotamia is often considered to be the birthplace of law codes. In recognition of this fact and motivated by the perennial interest in the topic among Assyriologists, the 59th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale was organized in Ghent in 2013 around the theme “Law and (Dis)Order in the Ancient Near East.” Based on papers delivered at that meeting, this volume contains twenty-six essays that focus on archaeological, philological, and historical topics related to order and chaos in the Ancient Near East. Written by a diverse array of international scholars, the contributions to this book explore laws and legal practices in the Ur III, Old Babylonian, Middle Assyrian, and Neo-Assyrian periods in Mesopotamia, as well as in Nuzi and the Hebrew Bible. Among the subjects covered are the Code of Hammurabi, legal phraseology, the archaeological traces of the organization of community life, and biblical law. The volume also contains essays that explore the concepts of chaos/disorder and law/order in divinatory texts and literature. Wide-ranging and cutting-edge, the essays in this collection will be of interest to Assyriologists, especially members of the International Association for Assyriology.

Security for Debt in Ancient Near Eastern Law
Security for Debt in Ancient Near Eastern Law

Author: Raymond Westbrook

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 9789004121249

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A survey by twelve leading experts of the types of security available to creditors in the earliest recorded legal systems, and of the ways in which the law sought to satisfy the conflicting interests of creditors and debtors.

Islam on the Margins
Islam on the Margins

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-02-06

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 9004527834

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Islam on the Margins commemorates the contributions Michael Bonner made to Near Eastern Studies. Its collection of contributions from students and colleagues recalls the breadth of Michael Bonner’s erudition and impact on the field.

Debt and Indebtedness at Emar
Debt and Indebtedness at Emar

Author: Maurizio Viano

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-06-19

Total Pages: 652

ISBN-13: 1501515306

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This book is the first comprehensive study of debts and credit system at Emar. It focuses on the socio-economic aspects of credit access and indebtedness as well as on the motivations behind debts and debt settlement in the city of Emar. The credit system is analyzed through several factors: the purpose of debts, i.e., productive or consumptive; the procedures for granting loans; the strategies put in place to meet an obligation and to cope with economic difficulties; the consequences of non-fulfillment, which may lead to servitude or slavery; the different types of slavery; slave prices; the mechanisms of enslavement; and termination of slavery. Moneylending practices and the formation of servile conditions at Emar are studied in the context of the Syrian economy aiming to understand whether the Emar evidence conforms with a socio political and economic crisis that is generally acknowledged to have struck Syria, Anatolia and Northern Mesopotamia at the end of the Late Bronze Age. This work is of sure relevance for scholars interested in socio-economic history, not only of the pertinent historical-geographical area.