Nov 23, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2024-25
CARS 3420 - Women in the Ancient Mediterranean
This course will explore the main sources of information about women in the related Mediterranean cultures of Greece, Rome and Italy, from c. 1000 BC to the 4th c. AD. Although these cultures are quite distinct in many ways, there are all patriarchal societies with an agricultural base for the economy. Women’s roles were tied to reproduction and care of the household, and women were seen as less publicly productive, and therefore inferior to men. The ways in which women were categorized as ‘not men’ cannot be understood without analyzing what it meant to be a man in these societies, in particular a free citizen adult man. The evidence we will consider includes economic and legal texts, literature, religious texts and funerary inscriptions, as well as archaeological evidence. In particular, we will look at the representations of women in epic, love poetry, drama, law cases, art and archaeology. Most texts and art works were created by men, and present the male view, both positive and negative, of women’s roles in society, so the course will also focus upon the culturally defined gender biases in the sources, and on feminist methodologies devised to clarify and interpret these biases.
Requisites: WGS 1000 or Soph or Jr or Sr
Credit Hours: 3
OHIO BRICKS: Bridge: Diversity and Practice
General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2HL
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will be able to analyze the biological, cultural, and economic factors common to ancient Mediterranean civilizations which define women’s roles.
- Students will be able to recognize what is distinctive about women’s roles in each different culture, through literature and art.
- Students will be able to describe the gender biases in male portrayals of women in ancient literature and art.
- Students will be able to evaluate a broad range of ancient historical, literary, and philosophical texts, to analyze their arguments, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, to connect them to other ideas and arguments in other texts.
- Students will be able to compare, analyze, and critique theories about women’s roles in the ancient world based on literary and artistic material.
- Students will be able to develop cultural self-awareness and articulate insights about their own cultural rules and biases by studying these topics in the ancient world.
- Students will be able to demonstrate empathy by interpreting intercultural experiences from others’ worldview as well as from their own.
- Students will be able to display openness by initiating and developing interactions with culturally different others.
- Students will be able to recognize how and to what extent the views of women in our modern society are derived from those held in ancient societies.
- Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of cultural differences, and their ability to negotiate a shared understanding based on those differences, in verbal and non-verbal communication.
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