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"Fighting Over A Shadow?": Hellenistic Greek Cities And Greco-Roman Cities As Fora And Media For Multi-Level Social Signaling, Luann Wandsnider
"Fighting Over A Shadow?": Hellenistic Greek Cities And Greco-Roman Cities As Fora And Media For Multi-Level Social Signaling, Luann Wandsnider
Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications
The cities of Hellenistic western Anatolia and Roman Asia Minor served as fora for complex social, economic, and political transactions. This chapter introduces social signaling theory in which these transactions are considered as social signals emitted by individuals (i.e., citizens) and groups (i.e., cities) and emphasizes the different qualities of these signals, especially their materiality and differential costliness. Social signals convey information about the otherwise difficult-to-assess capabilities of individual and groups; only some have the talents or resources to emit a high-quality signal. At the individual level, the nature, location, and possibly size of a civic benefaction signal’s an individual’s …
Public Buildings And Civic Benefactions In Western Rough Cilicia: Insights From Signaling Theory, Luann Wandsnider
Public Buildings And Civic Benefactions In Western Rough Cilicia: Insights From Signaling Theory, Luann Wandsnider
Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications
In the Hellenistic and Roman world of the eastern Mediterranean, Greek and Greco-Roman cities came to be defined by their physical cityscape. These buildings were constructed by specific city institutions, such as the council and the assembly, and financed through city funds, mass subscription and, importantly, public benefactions. Public benefactions, which also included support for festivals and competitions, were made by certain elite and usually wealthy individuals to the benefit of a defined community of citizens (and sometimes non-citizens, as in the case of fortification walls). Institutions within the benefiting community, again the council and the assembly, acknowledged these gifts …