Book contents
- Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China
- Antiquity in Global Context
- Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Series Editors’ Preface
- Editors’ Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Crafting Space and Place
- Part II Performances of Power
- Part III Urban Places
- Chapter 7 Neighborhood Life in Imperial Rome and Han Chang’an
- Chapter 8 Society, Cities, and the Significance of ‘Sacred Roads’ in Archaic Greece, in the Chinese Qin and Han Empires, and in the Archaic States of the Middle East
- Chapter 9 Hydropolitical Engineering in Rome and Chang’an
- Chapter 10 Imperial Gardens in Early Roman and Chinese Empires
- Part IV Fringe Places and Endpoints
- Index
- References
Chapter 7 - Neighborhood Life in Imperial Rome and Han Chang’an
from Part III - Urban Places
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2024
- Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China
- Antiquity in Global Context
- Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Series Editors’ Preface
- Editors’ Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Crafting Space and Place
- Part II Performances of Power
- Part III Urban Places
- Chapter 7 Neighborhood Life in Imperial Rome and Han Chang’an
- Chapter 8 Society, Cities, and the Significance of ‘Sacred Roads’ in Archaic Greece, in the Chinese Qin and Han Empires, and in the Archaic States of the Middle East
- Chapter 9 Hydropolitical Engineering in Rome and Chang’an
- Chapter 10 Imperial Gardens in Early Roman and Chinese Empires
- Part IV Fringe Places and Endpoints
- Index
- References
Summary
Neighborhoods are a universal feature of sedentary societies. Despite differences in meaning functionality, their inherent qualities derive from the sheer amount of lifetime individuals spend in them. In premodern societies, they often demarcate the radius of quotidian agency. Ryan Abrecht approaches the vibrant cities of Rome and Chang’an, microcosms of the respective empires they represented, through the decentered lens. In the shadow of polished public places, typically modeled to serve as monumental stages for the conduct and the performance of politics, he explores the lived experience in less shiny places of town. The academic quest for neighborhoods is not confined to archaeohistorical endeavors. Rather, turning to Henry Lefebvre’s groundbreaking work on rhythmnanalysis, Abrecht demonstrates the value of tracing daily patterns within cities – the places people navigate in their quotidian lives – and the sensory experience this generates among those who share a neighborhood space. In doing so, the article brings to life the perspective of tenants in insulae (“blocks”) and vici (“villages”), and in Chang’an residential districts respectively. Abrecht diagnoses a deep difference in neighborhood experience as such: Rome’s open community structures, with porous and permeable boundaries between vici, are contrasted with circumstances in Chang’an, where affiliations mattered more and were also regulated through official controls. The concluding discussion of poems from the Hanshu and Liu Yiqing reveals how corresponding patterns of behavior played out over time to shape unique neighborhood experiences and local cultures.
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- Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China , pp. 241 - 273Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024