The Classics between Disciplines and Theories: The Anthropology of Ancient Worlds

Abstract

The paper presents the work of the French School of Anthropology of Ancient Worlds, which was developing intensively among the researchers gathered around the Centre Louis Gernet in Paris, named after the pioneer of this approach. This epistemological turn in researching classics is the consequence of the intersection of the classics, history, anthropology, sociology, archaeology, and different critical theories. The shift does not only refer to the change of methodologies, but also to the change of researched themes and phenomena, which are regarded in the concrete socio-political and cultural context. The most important representatives of the first generation in the Centre were Jean-Pierre Vernant, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Marcel Detienne, and Nicole Loraux. Their work has been translated into other languages, while the Centre was a lively place of intellectual dialogue and innovative approaches to antiquity, especially during the 1970s and the 1980s. Extremely interesting dialogue and influences also appeared beyond the borders of France, so the paper will turn briefly to the reception of the school in the Anglophone world, but also in the former Yugoslavia, with the intention to shed light on certain intellectual trajectories in the exchange of ideas.

Keywords

• Centre Louis Gernet
• anthropology of ancient worlds
• methodologies
• theories
• themes
• reception