Micro-Economics of the Rural Romano-Egyptian Household

这个项目探索了罗马-埃及农村家庭的微观经济。来自罗马埃及村庄的文献档案和出版的考古材料为我们提供了对罗马帝国时期农村生活和农村社区结构的独特见解。这些记录允许对家庭结构进行详细的档案探索。在我的研究中，我打算运用人类学和发展经济学中的“生计”和“生命历程”方法，以了解家庭形成的动力和家庭内部权力的运作。我认为，罗马-埃及农村家庭根据环境限制，采取了确保年度和世代社会经济再生产的战略。这种战略需要精明的家务管理，以适应动态和不确定的环境。特别关注的是死亡和繁殖，农业生产和风险管理，以及公元前30年至公元400年不断变化的政治和经济背景。由文献和考古记录促成的微观历史方法允许考虑村庄内外的内部家庭动态和社会关系网络，这在殖民环境中提供了社区复原力和强化了社区价值观。对家庭动态的关注需要考虑农村社区内的性别和权力关系。此外，埃及农村社会在这一时期也不是一成不变的：城市发展、农业商业化、新的罗马税收制度和不断变化的文化价值观(例如，在宗教体系中表现出来的)都影响了农村社会。这种方法运用了罗马帝国时期无与伦比的证据，将历史从个人的社会互动向上书写到更广泛的社区。反过来，我的研究为现代发展理论、民生研究和社会经济学中的关键问题提供了历史和比较的视角。这些问题往往侧重于家庭面对农村社会的结构性社会和经济变化时的复原力。

This project explores the micro-economics of the rural, Romano-Egyptian household. Documentary archives and published archaeological materials from the villages of Roman Egypt provide us with a unique insight into rural life and the structuring of rural communities in the Roman imperial period. These records allow detailed archival exploration into family structures. In my research, I intend to apply 'livelihood' and 'life-course' approaches from anthropology and developmental economics in order to understand the dynamics of household formation and the workings of power within households. I argue that rural Romano-Egyptian households adopted strategies to ensure annual and generational socio-economic reproduction, in accordance with environmental constraints. Such strategies required shrewd household management in order to adapt to dynamic and uncertain environments. Particular concerns were mortality and reproduction, agricultural production and risk management, and shifting political and economic contexts, ca. 30 BC - ca. AD 400. The micro-history approach enabled by the documentary and archaeological records allows a consideration of internal household dynamics and the network of social relations within and beyond the villages which provided community resilience and reinforced community values within a colonial environment. The focus on household dynamics requires a consideration of gender and power relations within rural communities. Further, Egyptian rural society was far from unchanging in this period: urban developments, the commercialisation of farming, new Roman taxation systems, and changing cultural values (as manifested within religious systems for instance) all affected rural society. This approach deploys evidence otherwise unparalleled from the Roman imperial period to write history upwards from individual social interactions towards the wider community. In turn, my research offers historical and comparative perspectives to key issues in modern development theory, livelihood research, and social economics. These issues often focus on the resilience of the household in the face of structural social and economic change in rural societies.