Race in the Ancient Mediterranean, Sec. 2, Fall 2013Oct. 3 David M. RatzanPaper Topics 1 Please respond to one of the following paper topics in 750-1250 words (i.e., 3-5 pages; word count does NOT include your name, paper title, bibliography). Please be sure to: give your paper a title double-spaceuse conventional margins (i.e., 1 inch on all sides) use a normal font (e.g., 12 pt. Times) proof-read your work Your paper will be graded on the following three criteria: 1.The quality of your argument.Remember: you are NOT summarizing, but arguing for a particular interpretation or a particular claim.Your job is to be interesting, clear, incisive and persuasive. 2.The quality and depth of you engagement with and deployment of ancient material in your argument.The exercise here is to deal with antiquity, so stay close to your material. 3.The quality of the production.This is a finished piece of work.I am going to judge it that way, like an boss, supervisor, critic, etc. in the real world. The paper is due IN CLASS, Friday, Nov. 1, 2013.NO EXCEPTIONS. Books mentioned below are in the bibliography at the end of the syllabus in Blackboard and/or on course reserve. TOPICS 1. Airs, Waters, and Places is a racist text.Please defend or refute this proposition with an argument using a specific definition of racism and specific examples drawn from the text of Airs, Waters, and Places.You may use any definition of racism you wish, but it cannot be from a dictionary: it must be a definition based on a theoretical or historical approach to race, e.g., the one offered as an extension of racial formation by Omi and Winant.You are of course not obligated to use Omi and Winants definition. You may, for example, wish to consult B. Isaacs The Invention of Racism in Antiquity, who critiques Omi and Winant. 2. Compare the portrayal of Greeks, Persians, or Xerxes in the film The 300 (2006) to that of Herodotus, particularly in Book 7.What are the ways in which Persians are betrayed as other in the film and do they differ significantly from how Herodotus either in his own words or through historical personalities Race in the Ancient Mediterranean, Sec. 2, Fall 2013Oct. 3 David M. RatzanPaper Topics 1 portrays the Persians as barbarians?If they do differand here you will need specific exampleshow do they differ?You may wish to consider what Herodotus chooses to portray with respect to the battle of Thermopylae, whose actions are selected for representation and why, and how these compare to the choices and emphases of the film.You may also wish to take into account the fact that the movie is, in the first instance, an adaptation of a graphic novel based on Herodotus. In the end, how are we think of the film and its relationship to Herodotus and history?Is it an adaptation, a translation, what?And what does it tell us, if anything, about how Greeks othered Persians or how modern (American?) audiences other who? For some historical perspective, check out D. S. Levenes Xerxes goes to Hollywood in Bridges, E., Hall, E. and Rhodes, P. J. Cultural Responses to the Persian Wars: Antiquity to the Third Millenium (Oxford, 2007). 3. Compare and contrast TWO objects NOT studied in class that depict blacks in antiquity.Please consult The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume I: From the Pharaohs to the Fall of the Roman Empire (David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates, eds.).You will likely also wish to consult Snowdens two books.What is the range of possible interpretations of your objects?Does anything unite them, such that once can say that representations of blacks were carried specific cultural or ethical connotations, e.g., are they comical, barbaric?Once you pick your images, be sure to look for some bibliography on the objects to get a sense of the historical interpretations or current debate about them, if any. 4. Explore the debate over the Eurymedon vase.Present at least two scholars interpretations and critique them (See the bibliography at the end of the syllabus on Blackboard).What is your reading of this vase: is it a political statement?If so, what kind of political statement is it? 5. How does Herodotus OR Aristotle use the idea of geographical determinism?Compare this use to the theory found in Ps.-Hippocrates.Try to find at least two similarities and two significant differences and account for the differences, i.e., make an argument as to why these differences exist and what they might mean. 6. What is Aristotles theory of education?What is left to nurture, given the obvious importance of nature (physis)?What is the relationship between nature and nurture in Aristotles educational theory, as seen from Books 7 and 8 of the Politics.Perhaps compare this to the role of custom or law in Ps.-Hippocrates, a text otherwise given over to nature (physis).Be sure to give specific examples. 7. As we have seen, slavery is one of the poles against which the opposed ideal of the free citizen male is erected (e.g., Politics, Books 1 and 3 and Medea).How is the opposition put to work in Aristotles educational theory in Books 7 and 8?What is slavish and why?Be sure to give specific examples. Race in the Ancient Mediterranean, Sec. 2, Fall 2013Oct. 3 David M. RatzanPaper Topics 1 8. How is the word barbarian used in Euripides Medea?How many times does it show up?Can you detect a pattern of usage?Advance an interpretation about the way in which this word is used in the play in light of the play as a whole. 9. Offer a close reading of any ANCIENT TEXT or OBJECT we have studied thus far with a focus on EITHER what it tells us about race or ethnicity in antiquity OR the study of race or ethnicity in antiquity.Your paper must stay close to the text or object (i.e., you must quote it extensively and/or include the image of the object from which you are working) and have a clear argument. I WOULD NOT ATTEMPT THIS TOPIC UNLESS YOU HAVE A VERY SPECIFIC IDEA OF WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.OFF-ROADING CAN BE HARZARDOUS AND SHOULD ONLY BE ATTEMPTED BY PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHERE THEY ARE GOING.I include this topic here in case there is an idea with which you have been toying and which you would like to explore in a paper.