Slavery - Slave Systems Outside of Greece and Rome Flashcards
Define slavery
The status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attached to the right of ownership are exercised
Define a slave society
A society whose elite relies largely or wholly on the exploitation of slave labour for its wealth
Define a society with slaves
A society that permits slavery in law and in which at least some slaves can be found
Define serfdom
A form of landholding where the tenant is not legally a slave, but is required to cultivate a plot of land belonging to someone else, cannot change this arrangement, and must pay his/her landlord a rent either in cash/kind, or in labour services
What is the orthodox view of slave systems?
‘The pre-Greek world – the world of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Assyrians; and I cannot refrain from adding the Myceneans – was, in a very profound sense, a world without free men, in the sense in which the west has come to understand the concept. It was equally a world in which chattel slavery played no role of any consequence. That, too, was a Greek discovery.’ (M.I. Finley) - writing in the 1960s
What were Finley’s key ideas?
To have a crisp concept of slavery, one requires a crisp concept of freedom too - theoretically unsound, nothing needs an antonym to define itself, it exists without an opposite (like a toaster)
There was an economic basis to the crystallisation of these concepts: only when slavery became the main source of elite wealth did these concepts properly emerge
Before this point, ‘servile statuses’ existed in a fluid continuum
Solon’s reforms in 594/3 BC sparked off the rise of ‘slave society’ in Greece and led to the invention of the concept of freedom
In the Near East, slavery was economically unimportant, and there was no concept of freedom. Servile statuses were blurred.
Greece, then, was the first ‘slave society’ in world history, of which there were only five: (1) Classical Greece; (2) Republican and Imperial Rome; (3) the early-modern Caribbean; (4) the US South; (5) Brazil - missing other key slave societies - 18th/19th century north Africa
What were Lenski’s criticisms of Finley’s slave society?
‘The “Slave Society” model, at least in the eyes of this author, thus turns out to be an impediment to a fuller understanding of slave systems. For all its virtues as an early example of the use of comparative sociology, it is outdated in its methodology, ethnocentric in its scope, and deceptive in its generalisations.’
What are the problems with Finley’s model?
‘Slave society’ as a concept is only applicable to societies for which extensive evidence survives, esp. on elite income
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
Societies in which slavery played an important role may be poorly or partially documented in our sources
Oriental vs. Classical civilisation: too simplistic
Academic compartmentalisation: classics departments; departments of Oriental studies; Hebrew Bible normally studied in Theology departments. Lack of interdisciplinary dialogue
What ancient evidence disproves Finely’s theory?
Man claims he is free, another says he belongs to him
If you’re manumitted in Baylonia, you receive a clay tablet that signifies your freedom
Claimant comes forward with documents of ownership/inheritance of this man etc.
Eventually admitted he was lying and was in fact a slave
Show that they had a clear definition of slavery - disproves Finley’s theory
Which ancient evidence shows women were the head of the domestic household?
Prov. 31:10ff - Israel
Woman as the head of the household, slaves under the jurisdiction and management of the wife
Household producing for the market, not just for the house
Which author provides evidence for Persian slavery?
At this point in his advance the king (Alexander) was confronted by a strange and dreadful sight, one to provoke indignation against the perpetrators and sympathetic pity for the unfortunate victims. He was met by Greeks bearing branches of supplication. They had been carried away from their homes by previous kings of Persia and were about eight hundred in number, most of them elderly. All had been mutilated, some lacking hands, some feet, and some ears and noses. They were persons who had acquired skills or crafts and had made good progress in their instruction; then their other extremities had been amputated and they were left only those which were vital to their profession. All the soldiers, seeing their venerable years and the losses which their bodies had suffered, pitied the lot of the wretches. Alexander most of all was affected by them and unable to restrain his tears.’ (Diodorus 17.69.2-9)
Name another ancient society which had a thriving slave trade.
Babylonia, 7th-4th centuries BC
Wealthy families sometimes own 100 or more slaves
Difficult to tell the role of slave labour due to the nature of documentation (cannot gain rounded overview of elite income)
