Honor among thieves : craftsmen, merchants, and associations in Roman and Late Roman Egypt / Philip F. Venticinque.

Author
Venticinque, Philip Frank [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2016]
Description
ix, 275 pages ; 24 cm.

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Classics Collection HD6454 .V46 2016 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Series
    New texts from ancient cultures [More in this series]
    Summary note
    Philip F. Venticinque's new volume examines associations of craftsmen in the framework of ancient economics and transaction costs. Scholars havelong viewed such associations primarily as social or religious groupsthat provided mutual support, proper burial, and sociability, and spaces where non-elite individuals could seek status supposedly denied them in their contemporary society. However, the analysis presented here concentrates on how craftsmen, merchants, and associations interacted with each other and with elite and non-elite constituencies; managed economic, political, social, and legal activities; represented their concerns to the authorities; and acquired and used social capital-a new and important view of these economic engines. "Honor Among Thieves" offers a study of associations from a social,economic, and legal point of view, and in the process examines how they helped their members overcome high transaction costs -the "costs of doing business" -through the development of social capital. He explores associations from the "bottom up," in order to see how their members create status and reputation outside of an elite framework. He thus explores how occupations regarded as thieves in elite ideology create their own systems of honor.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-264) and index.
    Contents
    • Charters, transaction costs, and trust
    • The business of trust
    • Reputation management
    • Reputation, rhetoric, and participation
    • Associations in legal thought and practice
    • Associations in Late Roman Egypt.
    ISBN
    • 9780472130160 ((hardcover ; : alk. paper))
    • 0472130161 ((hardcover ; : alk. paper))
    LCCN
    2016034771
    OCLC
    949986620
    Other standard number
    • 99970224583
    • 12992461
    Statement on language in description
    Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...
    Other views
    Staff view