Webster Lecture: Who cooked Aristotle's dinner? Women and the ancient (Greek) economy
Annual T.B.L. Webster Memorial Lecture
Who cooked Aristotle’s dinner? Women and the ancient (Greek) economy
Where are the women in the study of ancient economies? Their relative invisibility can only be partially explained by the surviving sources given that the last 50 years has seen a great deal of work on women and gender in other fields of ancient history. Routinely in accounts of ancient economies women’s experience is either ignored or viewed in limited terms and economic actors conceptualized as being male by default. This talk argues that through the employment of a feminist theoretical framework we can suggest new ways to consider multiple aspects of ancient economies.
Claire Taylor is Associate Professor and John W. & Jeanne M. Rowe Chair of Ancient Greek History at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She specializes in the social, political and economic history of fifth and fourth century Athens, with a focus on the lived experience of marginalized peoples and the evidence they left behind. Her most recent book, Poverty, Wealth, and Well-Being: Experiencing Penia in Democratic Athens (Oxford University Press, 2017), examines not only the discourses surrounding poverty in ancient Athens, but also the well-being of those categorized as poor and their experiences of poverty. She has also published work on ancient graffiti, political participation and female friendship.