Language:
English
Pages:
Online-Ressource (304 S.)
Edition:
Online-Ausg. 1997
Series Statement:
Princeton legacy library
Parallel Title:
Print version Household interests : property, marriage strategies, and family dynamics in ancient Athens
DDC:
306.85/09385
Keywords:
Families History
;
Athens (Greece) Social conditions
;
Greece Social conditions To 146 B.C
Abstract:
Main description: Household Interests is one of the first books to explore in-depth the nature of the Greek household (oikos) in classical Athens. Whereas the oikos traditionally has been defined as the household of the nuclear family in Greece, Cheryl Anne Cox reveals it as a much more fluid structure, taking care to distinguish between the concepts of "household" and "family." The legal basis of the typical elite household emerges as Cox describes marriage patterns or strategies among the families represented in Attic orations and funerary inscriptions: property interests were a strong motivating force, with the elite marrying within their kin, primarily through paternal lines in which property was transferred. The author ultimately shows that the household was not limited to "family" or kinspeople. Friends, neighbors, concubines or prostitutes, and slaves also shared in property interests and all could have a profound influence on the household.After first examining marriage patterns, Cox turns to inter-family relationships. Using anthropological sources and historical studies of European societies, she shows how property interest shaped often conflicted relations between parents and their children and among brothers, and yet it encouraged male charity toward sisters. Cox next considers how property transfer through adoption, guardianship, and remarriage, and the intervention of friends, concubines, and slaves, all contributed to expanding the boundaries of the household beyond kin.Originally published in 1997.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Description / Table of Contents:
FrontmatterContentsFigures and TablesPrefaceIntroductionChapter 1. The Families of the Private OrationsChapter 2. Town and Country, Marriage and DeathChapter 3. Harmony and Conflict within the HouseholdChapter 4. Sibling RelationshipsChapter 5. What Was an Oikos?Chapter 6. The Nonkinsman, the Oikos, and the HouseholdConclusionsAppendix. The Political FamiliesReferencesIndexABOUT THE AUTHOR.
Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-244) and index
DOI:
10.1515/9781400864690
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