Peasants, Widows, Bandits and Beggars
Sign in to rateWe often forget how much life has changed since the industrial revolution. In our world, 98% are literate. In Jesus’ world, 98% were not. It was a world inhabited by peasant farmers, city artisans, rich patrons, desperate widows, social bandits, absentee landowners and corrupt judges. In these lectures we will look at the concepts of honor and shame, peasant economics, kinship and family patterns, social banditry and life in the cities and villages of the Mediterranean world. The lectures thus will offer an introduction to the new field of Social-Scientific Criticism.