Ethnography - Gender - Reception of the Classical Tradition

The project represents a combination of innovative approaches in human and historical sciences, that is ancient ethnography, gender studies and research in feminism. All these disciplines share overlappings which have been neglected so far. It is these fields which shall be focused on therby also developping the fundaments for further research. Concerning the role of gender, the cultural context seems to be the most important factor. However, this context cannot be grasped by analysing only the so called `reality` or by focusing on a specific historical situation. To get a comprehensive picture of all the elements forming the construction of gender` dealing with the literary discourse itself, where individual conceptions and projections play a dominant role, seems to be essential. To decode the constituent elements of this process, it is, in any case, not sufficient to draw ones attention on a specific historical situation or even on one single epoch. It is the individual itself, the ancient author with his wishes and desires, his world view and his intentions where the historical analysis must beginn. Since ancient ethnography is an area where projections and constructions often gain enormous importance this discipline seems to be an ideal field of research where the author`s creative power might be illuminated. In antiquity this phenomenon was even more prominent than in recent times since geographical knowledge was often limited, a fact which procured the author the advantage to have more possibilities in shaping, designing and styling his individual descriptions. Beside these considerations, there is another aspect which seems innovative concerning the intentions of this project. The analyis of the different ethnographic conceptions and the role which the category of gender plays therein is combined with recent discussions on methodology in historical sciences as well as in feminism. So far, research on ethnographic matters focused on completely different questions like the one of the balance between reality and topos generally whereas studies in feminism often exhibit a too naive kind of approach to the ethnographic material, exspecially concerning the broad field of myth. The main research will be done on specific ancient authors concerned with ethnographic questions in a broad sense and encompassing a chronological frame which leads from the beginning of the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages. Further on, the catalogue of ethnographic text material, already existent in a core version at our department, shall be extended and at last be presented to the scientific community in an internet version. Finally, there is annother innovative aspect connected with this project, that is the combination of the analysis drawn from the ancient ethnographic material with an analysis of the classical tradition, its survival and effect in modern times. This query shall be developped in a concrete historical example of descriptions of the people living in the area of the ancient province of Raetia by authors of the modern times.