E-grāmata: Public and Private in Ancient Mediterranean Law and Religion

Drawn from a conference, “Religious Individualization in Historical Perspective,” held in Chicago, the 11 papers presented here address the distinction between public and private in ancient Mediterranean law and religion. Scholars in the fields working in Europe and North America examine the concept of pollution in Athenian homicide law; the distinction between a public and private sphere in Athenian legal enforcement; perceptions on the limits of public and private in the individual's mind in the context of ancient Greek religion; the construction of a private cult of liberty on the Palatine; the temple of Fortuna Augusta in Pompeii; illegitimacy and incest in Roman law; public and private in emergent Christian discourse; the role of religious dining tickets (banqueting tesserae) in Roman Palmyra; Rabbinic oral law; the neutral domain of carmelit in late antique Rabbinic literature; and the Islamic idea of privacy as a space of shame, sin, and virtue. Annotation ©2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

The public/private distinction is fundamental to modern theories of the family, religion and religious freedom, and state power, yet it has different salience, and is understood differently, from place to place and time to time. The volume examines the public/private distinction in the cultures and religions of the ancient Mediterranean, in the formative periods of Greece and Rome and the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.