What Is a Slave Society?
The Practice of Slavery in Global Perspective
- Editors:
- Noel Lenski, Yale University, Connecticut
- Catherine M. Cameron, University of Colorado Boulder
- Date Published: December 2020
- availability: Available
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781316508039
Paperback
Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook
Looking for an inspection copy?
This title is not currently available on inspection
-
The practice of slavery has been common across a variety of cultures around the globe and throughout history. Despite the multiplicity of slavery's manifestations, many scholars have used a simple binary to categorize slave-holding groups as either 'genuine slave societies' or 'societies with slaves'. This dichotomy, as originally proposed by ancient historian Moses Finley, assumes that there were just five 'genuine slave societies' in all of human history: ancient Greece and Rome, and the colonial Caribbean, Brazil, and the American South. This book interrogates this bedrock of comparative slave studies and tests its worth. Assembling contributions from top specialists, it demonstrates that the catalogue of five must be expanded and that the model may need to be replaced with a more flexible system that emphasizes the notion of intensification. The issue is approached as a question, allowing for debate between the seventeen contributors about how best to conceptualize the comparative study of human bondage.
Read more- Assembles leading international scholars who specialize in the study of slavery
- Offers a cross-cultural and trans-historical perspective
- Proposes a reexamination of the traditional binary distinction used to examine slaveholding societies
- Covers extensive ground and speaks at a level of general interest, such that the volume can serve as a textbook
Awards
- Winner, 2018 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Reviews & endorsements
'What Is a Slave Society? is highly engaging, broadly applicable, and surprisingly readable.' Lydial Wilson Marshal, African Archaeological Review
Customer reviews
Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review
Review was not posted due to profanity
×Product details
- Date Published: December 2020
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781316508039
- length: 526 pages
- dimensions: 228 x 151 x 31 mm
- weight: 0.75kg
- contains: 22 b/w illus. 8 maps
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
1. Framing the question: what is a Slave Society? Noel Lenski
Part I. Ancient and Late Antique Western Societies:
2. Ancient Greece as a 'Slave Society' Peter Hunt
3. Roman slavery and the idea of 'Slave Society' Kyle Harper and Walter Scheidel
4. Ancient slaveries and modern ideology Noel Lenski
Part II. Non-Western Small-Scale Societies:
5. The nature of slavery in small-scale societies Catherine Cameron
6. Native American slavery in global context Christina Snyder
7. Slavery as structure, process, or lived experience, or why slave societies existed in pre-contact tropical America Fernando Santos-Granero
8. Slavery in societies on the frontiers of centralized states in West Africa Paul Lovejoy
Part III. Modern Western Societies:
9. The colonial Brazilian 'Slave Society': potentialities, limits and challenges to an interpretative model inspired by Moses Finley Aldair Carlos Rodrigues
10. What is a Slave Society? The American South Robert Gudmestad
11. Islands of slavery: archaeology and Caribbean landscapes of intensification Theresa Singleton
Part IV. Non-Western State Societies:
12. Was nineteenth-century Eastern Arabia a 'Slave Society'? Matthew Hopper
13. Slavery and society in East Africa, Oman, and the Persian Gulf Bernard K. Freamon
14. Ottoman and Islamic societies: were they 'Slave Societies'? Ehud Toledano
15. A microhistorical analysis of Korean Nobis through the prism of the lawsuit of Damulsari Kim Bok-rae
16. 'Slavery so Gentle': a fluid spectrum of Southeast Asian conditions of bondage Anthony Reid
Conclusion. Intersections: slaveries, borderlands, edges James F. Brooks.
Sorry, this resource is locked
Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org
Register Sign in» Proceed
You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.
Continue ×Are you sure you want to delete your account?
This cannot be undone.
Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.
If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.
×