Course Syllabus

CLASARCH 128: How Houses Build People

Spring 2021

Thursdays, 12:00-2:00 pm

via Zoom

 

Instructor: Margaret M. Andrews

margaretandrews@fas.harvard.edu

Office hours: Mondays, 12:00–2:00 

                   *please sign up for one (or two, if necessary) 15 minute windows via calendly.com/margaretandrews

 

TF: Sarah Eisen 

saeisen@g.harvard.edu

Office hours: Wednesdays, 9-10 am, or by appointment

                   *please direct all questions about the course materials, schedule, and grades to Sarah first

 

Overview

People build houses, but how do houses help build people? This course will explore the concept of the house in the ancient Mediterranean world, from the Neolithic period to Late Antiquity, focusing mostly on ancient Greece and Rome. We will discuss aspects of space and how the spatial configurations of houses actively shape the way people act and think, both as individuals and as members of a collective society. We begin with an overview of fundamental theoretical concepts and methodological approaches, followed by an overview of the various types of houses in a selection of the principal cultures of the ancient Mediterranean. The final weeks of the semester will be thematic, addressing how a number of social issues are evident and differently expressed among the various cultures previously examined. Among the recurring questions of the course will be: What do the layout and features of houses reveal about their occupants? How did the house feature in the ancient concepts of “public” and “private”? How does the broader setting of houses affect their perception? How are houses used to reinforce or to subvert broader social structures?

 

Requirements

1. Attendance: Attendance at all classes is mandatory. Absences on medical grounds will be excused.

2. Quizzes: At the beginning of class on February 11, March 11, and April 8, there will be a short quiz meant to consolidate core terms and concepts that we have learned and discussed. 

3. 2 Short Essays: There will be two short essays assigned during the course of the semester. The first is entitled, "How Your House Built You," and will be a personal reflection (ca. 1000 words) on how you believe the physical space/appearance/location of your childhood house/housing has affected the development of your adult persona and/or perspectives on certain aspects of contemporary society. Students whose housing was unstable or nonexistent at points growing up are invited to discuss the impact of this situation insofar as they are comfortable. If, for any reason, a student is not comfortable writing about their personal situation, please contact the instructor. This essay will be due on Friday, February 5.

The second essay will be an object biography (ca. 1200 words) of an object from the Harvard Art Museums' collection of ancient objects. Each student will chose one such object in consultation with her and write a creative biography of the object that takes into account its use and function within an appropriate ancient domestic context. The biography can work on any time scale, from one day to its entire imagined ancient and modern history, from production to arrival at Harvard. This assignment will be due at the end of Reading Period.

4. In-class group discussion/presentation: Each student will sign up for a group-led (ca. 3 students) discussion on a specific week’s topic that is based on the assigned readings and some supplementary research. The students leading the discussion each week will post 3 discussion questions about the readings 24 hours before their discussion session. In class, the students will work together to provide a general summary of the readings and their arguments, as well as their importance and relevance to the topics of the course and specific week. They will then be responsible for leading a balanced and informed discussion about the readings with their fellow students. The presentation may include visual aides, but they are not required. As a group assignment, all students will receive the same grade, but the group is required to specify what each member of the group was responsible for.

 

Assessment

Participation in discussions: 10%

Quiz Average: 20%

Discussion session: 30%

Short Papers: 15% + 20% = 40%

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

— SCHEDULE —

Week 1 (Jan 28) — Concepts and Theories: Meaning and Agency of Houses in Human Society

•  P. Bourdieu, “The Berber House or the World Reversed,” Social Science Information 9 (1970),
•  A. Rapoport, House Form and Culture (1969), 46-82
•  M. Shanks, “Three Rooms: Archaeology and Performance” Journal of Social Archaeology 4 (2004): 147-180

 

Week 2 (Feb 4) — Methods: How Do We Look at Houses?

•  S. Souvatzi, A Social Archaeology of Households in Neolithic Greece: An Anthropological Approach (2008), 21-46
•  S. Steadman, Archaeology of Domestic Architecture and the Human Use of Space (2012), 39-68
•  V. LaMotta and M Schiffer, “Formation Processes of House Floor Assemblages,” in The Archaeology of Household Activities (1999), 19-29
•  S. Bafna, “Space Syntax: A Brief Introduction to Its Logic and Analytical Techniques,” Environment and Behavior 35 (2003), 17-29

**PERSONAL ESSAY DUE MONDAY, 2/8, by 12:00 pm**

 

Week 3 (Feb 11) — Prehistoric Housing

•  I. Hodder, “Architecture and Meaning: The Example of Neolithic Houses and Tombs,” in Architecture and Meaning: Approaches to Social Space (1994), 62-78
• S. Souvazki,”Between the Individual and the Collective: Household as a Social Process in Neolithic Greece,” in New Perspectives on Household Archaeology (2012), 14-44
• E. Banning, “Housing Neolithic Farmers,” Near Eastern Archaeology 66 (2003), 4-21

 

Week 4 (Feb 18) — Greek Houses

•  M. Trümper, “Modest Housing in Late Hellenistic Delos,” in Ancient Greek Houses and Households: Chronological, Regional, and Social (2005), 119-39
•  L. Nevett, Houses and Society in the Ancient Greek World (1999), 4-52

 

Week 5 (Feb 25) — Roman Houses         

•  C. Knights, “The Spatiality of the Roman Domestic Setting: An Interpretation of Symbolic Content” in Architecture and Meaning: Approaches to Social Space (1994), 62-78
•  A. Wallace-Hadrill, “Domus and Insulae in Rome: Families and Households,” in Early Christian Families in Context: Interdisciplinary Approaches (2003), 3-18
•  A. Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum (1994), 3-16, 38-61

 

Week 6 (Mar 4) — Late Antique Houses

• S. Ellis, “The End of the Roman House,” American Journal of Archaeology 92 (1988): 565-576
• K. Bowes, Houses and Society in the Late Roman Empire (2008), 19-60
• K. Bowes, “Christianization and the Rural Home,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 15 (2007), 143-170

 

Week 7 (Mar 11) — Houses and Class Structures

•  T. Kohler et al., “Greater post-Neolithic wealth disparities in Eurasia than in North America and Mesoamerica,” Nature 551 (2017): 619-622
• S. Joshel and L. Petersen, The Material Life of Roman Slaves, 24-86
• Petronius, The Satyricon, "Trimalchio's Dinner Party"

 

Week 8 (Mar 18) — Houses and Economic Structures

• B. Ault, “Oikos and Oikonomia: Greek Houses, Households, and the Domestic Economy,” Building Communities: House, Settlement, and Society in the Aegean and Beyond (2007), 259-65
• B. Tsakirgis, “Living and Working around the Athenian Agora: A Preliminary Case Study of Three Houses,” in Ancient Greek Houses and Households: Chronological, Regional, and Social Diversity (2005), 67-82
• K. Harrington, “Privacy and Production: Sensory Aspects of Domestic Production and Household Industry in Classical and Hellenistic Greece.” Archaeological Review from Cambridge 30 (2015): 63-69
• M. Flohr, "Spatial Contexts of Urban Production at Pompeii" (2007), 129-48 

Week 9 (Mar 25) — Household Religion              

• S. Stowers, “Theorizing the Religion of Ancient Households and Families,” in Household and Family Religion in Antiquity (2012), 5-19  
•  K. Bowes, “At Home,” in A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World (2015), 207-219 
• J. Clarke, The Houses of Roman Italy, 100 BC – 250 CE: Ritual, Space, and Decoration (1991), 1-29

 

Week 10 (Apr 1) — Gender and Sexuality in the Household

• P. Allison, “Labels for Ladies: Interpreting the Material Culture of Roman Households,” in The Archaeology of Household Activities (1999), 57-77
•  M. Goldberg, “Spatial and Behavioral Negotiation in Classical Athenian City Houses,” in The Archaeology of Household Activities, 142-161
• J. Clarke, Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art, 100 BC - AD 250 (2010), 145-94

 

Week 11 (Apr 8) — Houses and Neighborhoods

• R. Laurence, Roman Pompeii: Space and Society (2007), 39-61
• M. Smith, “The Archaeological Study of Neighborhoods and Districts in Ancient Cities,” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29 (2010): 137-54
• K. Keith, “The Spatial Patterning of Everyday Life in Old Babylonian Neighborhoods,” in The Social Construction of Ancient Cities (2010), 56-80
• M. Andrews, “A Domus in the Subura of Rome from the Republic through Late Antiquity,” American Journal of Archaeology 124 (2014), 61-90

 

Week 12 (Apr 15) -- NO CLASS: WELLNESS DAY

 

Week 13 (Apr 22) — Houses in Regional Landscapes

• L. Foxhall, “Small, rural farmstead sites in ancient Greece: a material cultural analysis,” in Chora und Polis: Methoden und Ergebnisse der historische Landeskunde (2004), 249-270
• McHugh, The Ancient Greek Farmstead, TBD
• TBD (slave economy/quarters, rustica vs. urbana, rural religion)