Other by John Weisweiler
In his, "Debt: The First 5000 Years" (Melville House 2011), David Graeber puts forward a new gran... more In his, "Debt: The First 5000 Years" (Melville House 2011), David Graeber puts forward a new grand narrative of world history. From the late bronze age onwards, all across Eurasia, relationships of social obligation were transformed into quantifiable and legally enforceable debts. Graeber argues that the roots of the current socio-economic order are located not in early-modern Europe, but in this first ancient age of empires.
This conference assesses the conclusions of "Debt: The First 5000 Years" from an ancient historical perspective. We pursue two aims. On the one hand, we seek to test the accuracy of Graeber's grand narrative. How well does the interpretation advanced in the book fit current understandings of ancient economies? On the other hand, we will explore the methodological implications of Graeber's work. Does an anthropology of value, which insists on the links between social, economic and cultural history, offer a useful alternative to the currently dominant neo-institutional theories of the ancient economy?
Books by John Weisweiler
Papers by John Weisweiler
Oxford University Press eBooks, Nov 11, 2022
Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East
This chapter introduces the major themes of the collection Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and ... more This chapter introduces the major themes of the collection Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East. It surveys the arguments of David Graeber’s 2011 monograph Debt: The First 5,000 Years and situates them in the wider context of the author’s oeuvre. It examines the implications of his anthropological theory of value and makes a case that it has the potential to widen the field of vision of ancient historians. Unlike the currently dominant paradigm of new institutional economics, which tends to see the market as the natural and efficient resource allocation mechanism, it directs attention to the processes by which some fields of life were subjected to quantitative logics and others were not. The chapter concludes by exploring to what extent the studies assembled in this volume corroborate or modify the picture of ancient economic history presented in Debt. It suggests that Graeber’s concept of a “military–coinage–slavery” complex provides a useful analytic for understanding t...
The paper explores the ideological reasons for the late-antique expansion of the imperial aristoc... more The paper explores the ideological reasons for the late-antique expansion of the imperial aristocracy. It suggests that in the fourth century the senate transformed from a Republican élite, whose legitimacy derived from the institutions of the Roman city-state, into an explicitly global class, whose authority was an emanation of the beneficence of a sacred ruler towards the human species.
Past & Present, Nov 14, 2021
In the first two centuries ce, the Roman senate transformed from an assembly of Italian landowner... more In the first two centuries ce, the Roman senate transformed from an assembly of Italian landowners into a multi-regional group. The admission of thousands of provincials into Rome’s governing elite is often taken as evidence for the successful integration of subject populations. This article challenges such views of the senate as an inclusive institution. It shows that the overwhelming majority of non-Italian senators came from merely four (out of more than thirty) provinces: Baetica (in southern Spain), Narbonensis (Provence), Africa (the coastlines of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) and Asia (western Anatolia). The elites of these regions entertained close links to Italy since the second century bce. In the first centuries ce, they acquired enormous wealth through predation, through investments in capital-intensive agriculture and through their ability to exploit state supply networks for their own benefit. The steep rise in the number of provincial senators should thus not be read as evidence for the large-scale participation of conquered groups in the imperial administration. Rather, it chiefly was a product of the new opportunities for wealth accumulation and exploitation generated by Roman imperialism.
Review article: Recent research on late-antique Rome[John Curran 'Pagan City and Christian ca... more Review article: Recent research on late-antique Rome[John Curran 'Pagan City and Christian capital: Rome in the fourth century' Michele Renee Salzman 'The Making of a Christian aristocracy: social and religious change in the Western Roman Empire' Heike Niquet 'Monumenta virtutum titulique: Senatorische Selbstdarstellung im spatantiken Rom im Spiegel der epigraphischen Denkmaler' Author(s) WEISWEILER, John Citation 西洋古代史研究 = Acta academiae antiquitatis Kiotoensis = The Kyoto journal of ancient history (2007), 7: 37-45 Issue Date 2007-12-15
Past & Present, 2020
In the first two centuries ce, the Roman senate transformed from an assembly of Italian landowner... more In the first two centuries ce, the Roman senate transformed from an assembly of Italian landowners into a multi-regional group. The admission of thousands of provincials into Rome’s governing elite is often taken as evidence for the successful integration of subject populations. This article challenges such views of the senate as an inclusive institution. It shows that the overwhelming majority of non-Italian senators came from merely four (out of more than thirty) provinces: Baetica (in southern Spain), Narbonensis (Provence), Africa (the coastlines of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) and Asia (western Anatolia). The elites of these regions entertained close links to Italy since the second century bce. In the first centuries ce, they acquired enormous wealth through predation, through investments in capital-intensive agriculture and through their ability to exploit state supply networks for their own benefit. The steep rise in the number of provincial senators should thus not be read as...
The Classical Review, 2016
Literature and Society in the Fourth Century AD, 2014
Hermes, 2004
' Fur eine kritische Durchsicht des Manuskripts und fur wertvolle Hinweise sei HERMANN TRANK... more ' Fur eine kritische Durchsicht des Manuskripts und fur wertvolle Hinweise sei HERMANN TRANKLE von Herzen gedankt. 2 Definitive Publikation des Papyrus durch EW HANDLEY, P.Oxy. 64 (1997) 14ff. (Nr. 4467) (die hypothetische Zuweisung weiterer Papyri zu diesem ...
Cosmopolitanism and Empire, 2016
Palgrave studies in ancient economies, 2022
Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2012
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Other by John Weisweiler
This conference assesses the conclusions of "Debt: The First 5000 Years" from an ancient historical perspective. We pursue two aims. On the one hand, we seek to test the accuracy of Graeber's grand narrative. How well does the interpretation advanced in the book fit current understandings of ancient economies? On the other hand, we will explore the methodological implications of Graeber's work. Does an anthropology of value, which insists on the links between social, economic and cultural history, offer a useful alternative to the currently dominant neo-institutional theories of the ancient economy?
Books by John Weisweiler
Papers by John Weisweiler
This conference assesses the conclusions of "Debt: The First 5000 Years" from an ancient historical perspective. We pursue two aims. On the one hand, we seek to test the accuracy of Graeber's grand narrative. How well does the interpretation advanced in the book fit current understandings of ancient economies? On the other hand, we will explore the methodological implications of Graeber's work. Does an anthropology of value, which insists on the links between social, economic and cultural history, offer a useful alternative to the currently dominant neo-institutional theories of the ancient economy?