Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17234/RadoviZHP.54.23
Transformative Appropriation of Pottery Technology, Writing and Money – Problems of Deeper Social Entanglement of Greeks and Natives at the Eastern Adriatic Coast (Summary)
Filip Budić
Abstract
Entanglement theory is an interpretive tool that seeks to discern the dynamics of cultural transfer and power relations between settlers and natives. It explains how societies of different economic and political backgrounds were changing, sharing mutually socio-cultural content. There is a close link to the anthropology of consumption which tends to interpret that the people’s attitude towards foreign goods, practices and tastes was structured through three fundamental modes: assimilation, transformative appropriation or rejection.
The level of entanglement and the pace of transformative appropriation stand out as adequate indicators of social dynamics between newcomers and natives. This paper aimed to single out such reflections among the Eastern Adriatic natives concerning their relations to the Greek world during the Iron Age. Applying the concept of landscape influence on social features and activities, we limited the observation area to the so-called Eastern Adriatic. That implies the narrow coastal area bounded by the Dinarides in the hinterland and Bojana and Soča rivers as its southern and northern borders.
Three categories adequately contribute to a discussion of the so-called deeper level of social entanglement. From the Greek perspective, these are the spread, and from the indigenous perspective, the transformative appropriation of pottery techniques, literacy, and coinage. Since all three examples imply the long-term transfer of knowledge or production technology that was previously foreign to the natives, they proved to be crucial for comprehending the nature of interaction.
Three analysed categories might indicate a lower social entanglement between Greeks and natives on a general level. Due to the absence of permanent Greek settlements in the Eastern Adriatic before the beginning of the 4th century BCE, it is reasonable to understand the native reluctance to appropriate and transform the foreign Greek influences. In the same time, their absence indirectly testifies to a weaker level of trade relations and more intensive cooperation. On the other hand, the establishment of Greek settlements, Issa and Pharos, laid the foundations for social entanglement, but according to the current state of research it still had a slow and limited reflection among the indigenous communities. The prevailing native reluctance to absorb technological innovations in pottery making together with literacy and coinage could be the key arguments because they would indirectly reflect closer cooperation and coexistence, especially within autochthonous settlements. Moreover, from the moment of foundation and through the following centuries, the population of Issa and Pharos was modest compared to large Greek cities throughout the Mediterranean. Accordingly, the number of intercultural brokers necessary for daily cooperation with multiple indigenous communities should be observed as earnestly limited. Moreover, the indigenous world of the Eastern Adriatic seems disunited, mostly heterarchically organized without extensive centralising tendencies on a broader political level. This could also be seen as a barrier to the active and progressive social entanglement. Some additional factors could be unstable trading conditions with indigenous partners (Plut. Quaes. Gr. XXIX) or the privileged position of Illyrian and Liburnian women, witnessed by Theopompus (FGrHist 115 F39) and Pseudo-Scylax (21) during the 4th c. BCE. Although based on the adequate scope of evidence, there is a dire need to highlight that the presented hypotheses should be characterised as preliminary. More reliable arguments can only be obtained based on further research of native necropoleis and settlements of the Eastern Adriatic.
Keywords
Eastern Adriatic, Greeks, indigenous tribes, the entanglement, pottery, script, coinage
Hrčak ID:
296888
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2022.
Visits: 900 *