CALL for PAPERS: Cross-Cultural Approaches to Family and Household Structures in the Ancient World

Conference Call for Papers
Cross-Cultural Approaches to Family and Household Structures in the Ancient World
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU May 9-10, 2008


The Fellows at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) atNew York University are planning a conference entitled “Cross-cultural approaches to family and household structures in the ancient World”, May 9-10, 2008.
This conference seeks to shed new light on the formationpatterns and structural differences and similarities between family andhousehold in ancient societies from the western Mediterranean to China. In an attempt to initiate conversations between ancient historians, archaeologists, and social anthropologists of all regions and periods of the ancient world, the conference welcomes papers from across disciplines. Comparative approaches and proposals that use new methods of analysis or interpretation of documentary evidence, are particularly welcome.

Areas of interest include but are not limited to:
Cross-disciplinary definitions of households (beyond Hajnal’s and Laslett’s models of nuclear, extended and joint families) Physical configurations of houses/households Household formations:
Ideals and Reality (e.g. the influence of demographic regimes, social class and economic forces)
oeconomia: household as enterprise (labor recruitment, migration and the gendered division of labor)
Inter- and intragenerational conflict and support within the household (hierarchy, authority and rules of succession)

All papers are limited to a reading time of twenty minutes and will befollowed by twenty minutes of discussion. Senior graduate students arealso encouraged to submit proposals. By November 30, proposals (not to exceed the equivalent of one page, typewritten double-spaced) should be sent with contact information to either
Anna Boozer, Sabine Huebner, or Jinyu Liu at:

ISAW - Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
Email: isaw.household.conference@nyu.edu
15 East 84th Street
New York, NY 10028

Source: Papy-L