Household interests : property, marriage strategies, and family dynamics in ancient Athens / Cheryl Anne Cox.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cox, Cheryl Anne, 1953- author.

Series:

Princeton legacy library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Families--Greece--Athens--History.

Families.

Athens (Greece)--Social conditions.

Athens (Greece).

Greece--Social conditions--To 146 B.C.

Greece.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (276 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1998]

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Household Interests is one of the first books to explore in-depth the nature of the Greek household (oikos) in classical Athens. Whereas the oikos traditionally has been defined as the household of the nuclear family in Greece, Cheryl Anne Cox reveals it as a much more fluid structure, taking care to distinguish between the concepts of "household" and "family." The legal basis of the typical elite household emerges as Cox describes marriage patterns or strategies among the families represented in Attic orations and funerary inscriptions: property interests were a strong motivating force, with the elite marrying within their kin, primarily through paternal lines in which property was transferred. The author ultimately shows that the household was not limited to "family" or kinspeople. Friends, neighbors, concubines or prostitutes, and slaves also shared in property interests and all could have a profound influence on the household.After first examining marriage patterns, Cox turns to inter-family relationships. Using anthropological sources and historical studies of European societies, she shows how property interest shaped often conflicted relations between parents and their children and among brothers, and yet it encouraged male charity toward sisters. Cox next considers how property transfer through adoption, guardianship, and remarriage, and the intervention of friends, concubines, and slaves, all contributed to expanding the boundaries of the household beyond kin.Originally published in 1998.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Figures and Tables

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Families of the Private Orations

Chapter 2. Town and Country, Marriage and Death

Chapter 3. Harmony and Conflict within the Household

Chapter 4. Sibling Relationships

Chapter 5. What Was an Oikos?

Chapter 6. The Nonkinsman, the Oikos, and the Household

Conclusions

Appendix. The Political Families

References

Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages [231]-244) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691631622

069163162X

9780691602042

0691602042

9781400864690

1400864690

OCLC:

889251343