Slavery and Enslavement in Antiquity – A Global Historical Investigation

Slavery is a human practice attested in our earliest written sources and identifiable even earlier through archaeology. This lecture will explore how it manifested in premodern cultures with particular emphasis on five principles: slaving is a fundamentally embodied praxis which struggles to usurp rights to the control of another at the somatic and psychic level; slaving is rooted in captivity, and premodern slavery never escapes this fundamental reality, with consequences for the lives of enslavers and the enslaved; premodern slavery is tightly integrated into family structures, a fact which degrades family relations but also offers potential for upgrading the slave condition; the fluidity of premodern slaving is inversely correlated with the growth of state power; the economics of premodern slaving can only be understood in relation to broader cosmological preconceptions which include the value of the enslaved body to ritual praxis.

Slavery and Enslavement in Antiquity – A Global Historical Investigation will be presented by Noel Lenski, Dunham Professor of Classics and History, Yale University.

This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served following the lecture.

 Join us in-person or via Zoom!  

Registration is required. 

Co-sponsored by: Center for Premodern Studies and Department of Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures