Contacts at Mediterranean: the representations of black populations at Ancient Greece

• Grant number: 19/05729-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2019
• End date: April 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Archeology
• Principal Investigator: Haiganuch Sarian
• Grantee: Michelle Borges Pedroso
• Host Institution: Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia (MAE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project intends to develop a study and reflection about the Mediterranean contacts at Antiquity. From the observation and analysis of material culture, we're looking for evidences to argue against the purity of the historical and artistic legacy Greek and to make a reflection about how racist’s assumptions ignored some representations and multiple contacts between old societies to grounded the Western roots at an inexistent idea of white purity. However, we do not intend to deny the historico-cultural and artistic importance of Greek heritage to the modern societies, but highlight how contemporary racial debates could support reinterpretations of sources and show up mechanisms of oppression upon which our origins have been forged. The first studies about Antiquity ignored the contacts and circulations at Mediterranean to fabricate conceptions of Greek art, culture and society completely pure and authentic superimposed the others. The archaeological sources encountered have been selectively interpreted supporting such premisses, and thus the Western origins have been grounded at a specifically Greece defined as a cultural and historical past mostly white and male. The cultural contacts existents at Mediterranean have been silenced, although the development in internacional archeological debates, in Brazil there are few discussions about the contributions of other societies to Greece. In that way, the idea is describe and deepen the knowledge about other relations by focusing on the contacts between Greece and Africa and on Greek representations of black African populations to show up that Western roots are more melded that we suppose and we can not ignore this. (AU)