Reciprocity: A Response

Authors

  • Sarah P. Morris University of California at Los Angeles

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v29i1.31050

Keywords:

Anatolia, bioarchaeology, feasting, gender, Late Bronze Age, reciprocity, religion

Abstract

This response to a set of wide-ranging papers on the dimensions of reciprocity in Bronze Age Greece introduces three areas for further research, in order to expand the framework in terms of gender, space, and time. These include greater emphasis on the role of women and gender relations in the circulation of labor, land, goods, and prestige; the question of reciprocal relations beyond the Aegean; and, last but not least, the afterlife of prehistoric relationships of reciprocity in ritual practices and elite display in Iron Age Greece. Alternate methodologies are required for these investigations, particularly in archaeological science for exploring diet, health, and foodways that indicate access to resources, in the analysis of non-Aegean documents relevant to Late Bronze Age Greece, and in the juxtaposition of Homeric views of reciprocity with those identified in Bronze Age Greece. As in the evolving development of theories of reciprocity and gift exchange over a century, the ethnographic and ethnohistoric record, largely outside Greece, informs Aegean research.

Author Biography

  • Sarah P. Morris, University of California at Los Angeles
    Sarah P. Morris is Steinmetz Professor of Classical Archaeology and Material Culture, Department of Classics and Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California at Los Angeles, and Co-Director of the Ancient Methone Archaeological Project. She is interested in early Greek literature and religion, prehistoric and early Greek archaeology, and the influence of the Near East on Greek culture.

Published

2016-06-10

Issue

Section

Discussion and Debate (Responses)

How to Cite

Morris, S. P. (2016). Reciprocity: A Response. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 29(1), 111-118. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v29i1.31050