The Faces of the other

Otherness in the Greco-Roman World

Researcher in charge:

  • Doc. Academy research fellow Maijastina Kahlos (Dept. of Classics, University of Helsinki)

Other members:

  • Lic. Phil. Päivi Collander (Dept. of History, University of Turku)
  • Lic. Phil. Markus Mertaniemi (Dept. of History, University of Oulu)
  • Mag. Phil. Marika Rauhala (Dept. of History, University of Oulu)

The research project The Faces of the other – Otherness in the Greco-Roman world focuses on the perception of the otherness – other peoples or religions – in Greco-Roman antiquity. The research of attitudes and conceptions of the ancient Greeks and Romans aims to deepen the historical understanding of the depictions of otherness in modern Western culture. The project Faces will trace the roots of the argumentation about religious or ethnic otherness within European civilization and, thus, it will take part in the on-going discussion on the conflict and dialogue between cultures as well as on tolerance and intolerance.

Moreover, the project Faces participates in the current discussion on Greek and Roman identities and the others of the Greco-Roman world. The major contribution of our project to the scholarship of the Greco-Roman antiquity will be the application of the historical research of images. The Faces also combines the modern scholarly discussions both on encounter between religions and on Greek and Roman encounters with other peoples: this is a considerable innovation in classical studies.

The other members of the team have all made their Licentiate’s or Master’s dissertations on the topic of the research and continue with doctoral dissertations within the project. Lic. Phil. Päivi Collander on the alleged kingship of the Huns, Lic. Phil. Markus Mertaniemi on the image of the church in 260-303 and Mag. Phil. Marika Rauhala on the image of Cybele until the Roman period.

The Faces is an interdisciplinary research project consisting of three historians and one classicist/ historian. It aims at achieving better and deeper understanding of the ancient history of ideas, concentrating on the Greek and Roman attitudes towards the otherness. The period covered by the project (from the classical Greeks to the late Romans) is extensive but the focus on perception of the otherness sharpens the perspective to reasonable limits. Moreover, this makes it possible to outline some major changes in the Greco-Roman history of attitudes and ideas.

The members of the team utilize the approaches of historical, literary and social sciences. Since the project deals mainly with literary evidence, Greek and Latin texts, recent developments such as discourse analysis and new rhetoric are applied. In particular, the project works on the historical research of images and modern research of identity. One of the basic assumptions of the Faces is that the image of the other reveals more of the creators of the image than of the object portrayed. Thus, the attention is paid to the writers, their audiences and their society, not the objects as such. The hypothesis is tested in different historical circumstances, in Greek environment, under the Roman Empire, in the Christianizing Empire and, moreover, in late antique setting. For the individual research plans, see the appendices.

The post-graduate members of the team aim at finishing their doctoral theses in 2007-2009. Moreover, the project will publish a collection of academic articles on Roman attitudes towards other religions and peoples in Late Antiquity, The faces of the other – Otherness in the late Roman world.

Our team is:

  • The researcher in charge, Docent Maijastina Kahlos (Dept. of Classics, University of Helsinki, Academy researcher until July 31, 2011) graduated in the Department of History (Univ. of Helsinki 1991) and then took her doctoral degree in the Department of Classics (Univ. of Helsinki 1998), specialising in late antique studies. She has worked both as an independent researcher and as a research assistant in several projects and has also taught various academic courses and as well as translated Latin literature. She has finished her own research project Debate and Dialogue and started her new project From Defence to Assault, both funded by the Finnish Academy. Kahlos will write three articles “Greco-Roman Tolerance?”, “Pagans as others” and “Who is Roman and who is barbarian?” as well as an introduction for The Faces of the other – Otherness in the late Roman world. Moreover, she will be the chief editor of the book.
  • Lic. Phil. Päivi Collander (Dept. of History, University of Turku) finished her Licentiate’s thesis on the Huns in 2005. In 2000-2001 she was a post-graduate exchange student in Bonn (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität). In addition to her doctoral thesis on the alleged kingship of the Huns, she will write an article “The Huns as others” for The faces of the other.
  • In 2004 Lic. Phil. Markus Mertaniemi (Dept. of History, University of Oulu) finished his Licentiate’s thesis on the image of the Christian church. He is preparing doctoral thesis on the same topic. Mertaniemi has published several articles on the historical research of image. He will contribute the book The faces of the other with two articles “Christians as others” and “The Persians as others”.
  • Lic. Phil. Marika Rauhala (Department of History, University of Oulu) finished her licenciate’ thesis on the image of Cybele in 2006. She continues with her doctoral thesis on the same topic within the project.She has participated international archeological excavations at Soli/Pompeiopolis and has published an article on the stamped amphora handles found on these excavations.  She will write an article “The images of the cult of Cybele in imperial Rome” for The faces of the other.

In 2006-2010 the members of the team will finish their doctoral theses and write their contributions to the collection of articles.

  1. Päivi Collander: doctoral thesis will be finished in 2010.
  2. Markus Mertaniemi: doctoral thesis will be finished in early 2009.
  3. Marika Rauhala: doctoral thesis will be finished by the end of 2009.

The results of the project will be disseminated in the doctoral dissertations to be published for international academic audience in English. Moreover, the work of the team will be introduced in international conference and seminar papers.

The major task of the project is to publish the collection of articles The Faces of the Other – Religious and Ethnic Otherness in the late Roman world.