Honor among thieves : craftsmen, merchants, and associations in Roman and Late Roman Egypt / Philip F. Venticinque.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Venticinque, Philip Frank, author.

Series:

New texts from ancient cultures

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Guilds--Egypt--History--To 1500.

Guilds.

Merchants--Egypt--Societies, etc.

Merchants.

Artisans--Egypt--Societies, etc.

Artisans.

History.

Egypt--History--30 B.C.-640 A.D.

Egypt.

Artisans--Societies, etc.

Merchants--Societies, etc.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 275 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2016]

Summary:

Philip F. Venticinque's new volume examines associations of craftsmen in the framework of ancient economics and transaction costs. Scholars have long viewed such associations primarily as social or religious groups that provided mutual support, proper burial, and sociability, and spaces where non-elite individuals could seek status supposedly denied them in their contemporary society. However, the analysis presented here concentrates on how craftsmen, merchants, and associations interacted with each other and with elite and non-elite constituencies; managed economic, political, social, and legal activities; represented their concerns to the authorities; and acquired and used social capital-a new and important view of these economic engines. "Honor Among Thieves" offers a study of associations from a social, economic, and legal point of view, and in the process examines how they helped their members overcome high transaction costs -the "costs of doing business" -through the development of social capital. He explores associations from the "bottom up," in order to see how their members create status and reputation outside of an elite framework. He thus explores how occupations regarded as thieves in elite ideology create their own systems of honor.

Contents:

Charters, transaction costs, and trust

The business of trust

Reputation management

Reputation, rhetoric, and participation

Associations in legal thought and practice

Associations in Late Roman Egypt

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-264) and index.

ISBN:

9780472130160

0472130161

OCLC:

949986620

Publisher Number:

99970224583