Research Area B The Elusive Greekness (B15)
Intertwined social imaginaries and practices in Greece and the Near East in the Hellenistic Period
Project Leader: Eftychia Stavrianopoulou
Project Members: Daniel Habicht
Although it is unequivocal that the Hellenistic period (323-30 BC) opened up global interaction spheres linking different cultures and peoples in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, the effects of these intercultural contacts have yet to be sufficiently understood. The project took issue with the still prevalent view that the encounter between communities of the Greek mainland and of West Asia during Hellenistic times should be modelled as a one-way flow of ideas and practices. Based on the thesis that the social imaginary of a given society creates and, at the same time, is sustained by discourses and practices that are constantly in flux and flow, it was instead argued that a mutual cultural entanglement took place which had a bearing just as much on the shaping of identities as on social practices of Greek cities and non-Greek communities.