"Imperial Roman ethnography was a gift the Romans made for themselves, because it embraced concepts with which they could address the great cultural diversity of their world. It was a gift that came from the conquerors, reflecting their supposition of preeminence. At the same time, Roman ethnography was a somewhat less welcome present for the many peoples who found themselves trapped in Rome's vision, needing to find a place within it that made sense to Roman demands."
"Calling Rome's ethnographic infrastructure "the conqueror's gift," however, requires some explanation. Since the appearance of Marcel Mauss's pathbreaking essay The Gift in 1923, social scientists have recognized how gift exchange reveals complex, interactive social networks and hierarchies in different societies. The gift in the title of my book alludes to these insights and finds analogous networks and hierarchies of difference in Rome's ethnographic infrastructure, suggesting that it was a gift in several figurative ways."
Roman ethnography between the first and seventh centuries organized knowledge about diverse peoples inside and beyond the empire, shaping imperial identity and hierarchies. The ethnographic framework functioned as a gift from conquerors, offering concepts that enabled Romans to categorize cultural difference while asserting preeminence. Subject peoples had to accommodate Roman categories to gain recognition or status within the imperial order. The spread of Christianity transformed relationships and contributed to shifting representations of groups across late antiquity. Roman ethnography left a complex legacy that influenced later perceptions of peoples and persisted in institutional and intellectual practices.
Read at Medievalists.net
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