{"id":24037,"date":"2026-10-24T14:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T18:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/?p=24037"},"modified":"2026-10-25T16:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T20:03:12","slug":"presentation-beyond-ethnography-criminalization-of-populations-across-the-mediterranean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2026\/10\/presentation-beyond-ethnography-criminalization-of-populations-across-the-mediterranean\/","title":{"rendered":"Presentation \u2013 Beyond Ethnography: Criminalization of Populations Across the Mediterranean"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(Society for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, U of Toronto, November 3, 2026)<\/p>\n<p><strong>What I was attempting to do in the book <em>Ethnic Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Limits of a scholarly focus on <em>written<\/em> ethnography and Eurocentric tendency to favour the Greek and Roman literary elites: e.g. the rosy \/ whitewashed picture sketched by Momigliano and, more recently, Gruen<\/li>\n<li>Promising directions in, e.g., works by Greg Woolf and Antti Lampinen, but much more work to do in exploring ethnographic discourses in various social spaces and in understanding the dissemination of representations of peoples<\/li>\n<li>Expanding out into a world of representations (<em>graphos<\/em>) of peoples (<em>ethn\u0113<\/em>):\n<ul>\n<li>(1) Exploring more kinds of sources &#8211; e.g. visual ethnography<\/li>\n<li>(2) Paying attention to local situations and other social levels of society \u2013 e.g. traders and soldiers<\/li>\n<li>(3) Tracking more peoples, namely subject peoples and minorities (including Judeans and Jesus adherents), not only as objects of ancient analysis but as active <em>participants<\/em> in ethnographic conversations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Ethnographic discourses as a window into<em> social processes<\/em> of ethnic identification and differentiation and of population production at the imperial, regional, and local levels \u2013 criminalization of populations for the purposes of conquest or control as a subset of these processes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>New directions: imperial interests and ethnographic knowledge production<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Intimate ties between imperial aims and information about populations<\/em> (contrast Woolf, compare Nicolet)<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Cases in modern colonialism: Napoleonic project <em>Description de l\u2019\u00c9gypte<\/em> (1809-1829), gazeteers of the Indian provinces produced for the British under the direction of W.W. Hunter after 1869<\/li>\n<li>Strabo on filling the &#8220;needs of the government&#8221; \u2013 military and trade networks in the dissemination of ethnographic impressions: e.g. <em>Geography<\/em> 2.5.11-12 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2024\/08\/germans-britons-and-indians-strabo-on-travelers-soldiers-and-merchants-as-sources-of-information-early-first-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>) and 15.1.1-6 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2024\/08\/germans-britons-and-indians-strabo-on-travelers-soldiers-and-merchants-as-sources-of-information-early-first-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Local evidence of soldiers characterizing peoples and dissemination of information in imperial military networks in the eastern desert of Egypt (<a href=\"https:\/\/books.openedition.org\/cdf\/5235\">map<\/a> of four roads): e.g. dissemination of information of &#8220;barbarians&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2026\/10\/barbarians-roman-soldiers-and-egyptian-workers-on-peoples-of-the-eastern-desert-in-egypt-early-second-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>); Serenus on the &#8220;worthless Agriophagians&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2026\/10\/agriophagians-serenus-the-military-prefect-on-worthless-wild-animal-eaters-of-the-eastern-desert-122-ce\/\">link<\/a>); desert travellers on Trogodytes and Sabeans (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2023\/01\/troglodytes-graffiti-and-inscriptions-from-the-red-sea-area-thanking-pan-min-for-rescue-from-troglodytes-second-century-bce\/\">link<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Strabo more than an armchair imperialist<\/li>\n<li>Imperial expeditions and the acquisition of information about populations and lands: e.g. Persians and Skylax of Karyanda (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2024\/05\/indians-skylax-of-karyanda-a-persian-imperial-ethnographic-expedition-and-paradoxical-peoples-late-sixth-century-bce\/\">link<\/a>); Alexander of Macedon and Nearchos (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2022\/06\/indians-nearchos-megasthenes-and-arrian-fourth-century-bce-second-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>); Ptolemies and Eudoxos of Kyzikos\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2024\/08\/indians-ethiopians-and-iberians-poseidonios-and-strabo-on-eudoxos-of-kyzikos-expeditions-first-centuries-bce-and-ce\/\">link<\/a>); Augustus and\u00a0Isidoros from Charax Spasinou (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2024\/05\/parthians-and-arabians-isidoros-of-charax-and-the-imperial-purposes-of-geographic-and-ethnographic-information-late-first-century-bce\/\">link<\/a>); prefect Aelius Gallus and Strabo (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2024\/05\/arabians-strabo-on-aelius-gallus-imperial-expedition-early-first-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>); Hadrian and Arrian of Nikomedia (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2023\/05\/kolchians-heniochians-and-other-eastern-pontic-peoples-arrian-on-his-journey-along-the-coast-near-the-caucasus-mountains-early-second-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Criminalization of populations within the context of imperial knowledge production<\/em>\n<ul>\n<li>Defining criminalization<\/li>\n<li>Roman imperial perspectives:\n<ul>\n<li>Legal notions of &#8220;banditry&#8221; as the ultimate crime with the ultimate punishment: &#8220;The \u2018enemies\u2019 (<em>hostes<\/em>) are those on whom the Roman people has publicly declared war (<em>bellum<\/em>), or who themselves declare war on the Roman people. Others are termed \u2018bandits\u2019 (<em>latrunculi<\/em>) or \u2018brigands\u2019 (<em>praeaones<\/em>) (Ulpian, <em>Institutes<\/em>, book 1, in <em>Digest<\/em> 49.15.24; ca. 200 CE).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Bandits&#8221; in Strabo (and Livy) \u2013 inherent inclinations among e.g. Bessians in Thrake (7.5.12 \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2022\/09\/illyrians-pannonians-and-other-peoples-strabo-early-first-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>); progress with civilizing \/ imperial influence among e.g. Lusitanians (3.3.5 \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2022\/07\/iberians-artemidoros-poseidonios-and-others-in-strabo-first-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>); and, regression among e.g. Judeans (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2024\/08\/judeans-poseidonios-and-strabo-of-amaseia-first-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Barbarian&#8221; populations as &#8220;bandits&#8221; at the frontiers from inscriptions (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2022\/12\/northern-peoples-inscriptions-on-barbarians-as-bandits-second-third-centuries-ce\/\">link<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Bandits&#8221; filtering down into local social life (graves at same <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2022\/12\/northern-peoples-inscriptions-on-barbarians-as-bandits-second-third-centuries-ce\/\">link<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Responses to criminalization, and further instances of criminalization at local levels\u00a0<\/em>\n<ul>\n<li>Judeans and Jesus adherents&#8217; varied responses to criminalization as bandits:\n<ul>\n<li>Josephos&#8217;s rivals, but not Judeans as a whole, as &#8220;bandits&#8221;; Gospel of Mark exonerating the &#8220;bandit&#8221; Jesus and anticipating execution of followers as bandits<\/li>\n<li>Celsus&#8217; characterization of Jesus adherents as criminals following a &#8220;bandit,&#8221; and Origen&#8217;s response (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2026\/10\/judeans-celsus-on-jesus-adherents-as-followers-of-a-bandit-and-criminal-mid-second-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Charges of human sacrifice and eating human flesh as another instance of this process (e.g. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2026\/09\/egyptians-taurians-greeks-and-jesus-adherents-athenagoras-combats-charges-of-atheism-eating-human-flesh-and-incest-ca-176-180-ce\/\">link<\/a>). Widespread within ethnographic writing (e.g. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/category\/08-criminalization-of-populations\/human-sacrifice\/\">link<\/a>) but also, once again filtering down to local social life and faced by Judeans and Jesus adherents alike<\/li>\n<li>Minucius Felix&#8217;s Caecilius (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2023\/03\/romans-egyptians-persians-and-others-minucius-felixs-ethnographic-defence-of-the-christian-people-early-third-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>) and an enslaved graffitist at Rome (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2026\/10\/judeans-graffito-depicting-jesus-as-a-donkey-headed-god-on-a-cross-early-third-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Redirecting criminalization: Justin (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2026\/09\/greeks-egyptians-judeans-and-others-justin-of-flavia-neapolis-combats-charges-of-atheism-eating-human-flesh-and-incest-mid-second-century-ce\/\">link<\/a>), Epiphanius (link coming soon) and others charging other Jesus adherents with crimes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Society for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, U of Toronto, November 3, 2026) What I was attempting to do in the book Ethnic Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean Limits of a scholarly focus on written ethnography and Eurocentric tendency to favour the Greek and Roman literary elites: e.g. the rosy \/ whitewashed picture sketched by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[296],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethnicity-ancient-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24037"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24139,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24037\/revisions\/24139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}