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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Micaela Langellotti
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This chapter investigates how and how far cultural capital, intended as a set of traditions, knowledge and practices, impacted the economic choices of the people of Egypt and their social mobility. Cultural capital did not include only literacy but also an amalgam of values, traditions, habits, religious preferences, and so on, that the people of Egypt assimilated throughout their lives and that often had little to do with their linguistic knowledge of Greek, the official language of the administration. This is the cultural capital which is most invisible to us as it cannot be detected through the Greek documents. Yet, the papyri give us glimpses of the cultural world of the people of Egypt, beyond their literacy level. This world can be reconstructed, in part, through their onomastics, acquaintances and connections, through their marriages and the use of certain legal instruments instead of others, through their participation in certain institutions (e.g. associations), or the use of particular family strategies. This chapter looks at these factors to define the cultural capital of a select number of individuals and groups who worked in different sectors, that is, administration, agriculture, and textile production, and for which we have coherent sets of documents. Its main aim is to assess in what ways such capital affected their decision-making in everyday economic activities and how far this contributed to their socio-economic advancement.
Author(s): Langellotti M
Editor(s): Nathanael Andrade and Rubina Raja
Publication type: Book Chapter
Publication status: Published
Book Title: Invisible Labour in Antiquity. Visualizing Obscure Work in the Ancient Mediterranean and West Asia
Year: 2025
Pages: 199-224
Print publication date: 16/02/2026
Acceptance date: 14/06/2024
Publisher: Brepols
Place Published: Turnhout, Belgium
URL: https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503619835-1
Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item
ISBN: 9782503619835
