Sensory experiences and subaltern groups in Late Antiquity: senses and urban workers in Carthage between the 4th and 7th centuries

• Grant number: 24/04632-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina Nicolau Kormikiari
• Grantee: Rafael Aparecido Monpean
• Host Institution: Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia (MAE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to investigate the sensory experiences of urban subaltern groups, especially workers, in Carthage during Late Antiquity, covering the period from the 4th to the 7th centuries. Through the analysis of housing and working spaces of these subaltern social actors, the objective is to understand the social construction of forms of experiencing, signifying and valuing urban sensory stimuli, both emanating from and addressing them. The research emphasis is placed on those stimuli related to smells, sounds, visibilities and sensitivities to artificial heat. This approach seeks to examine how the ways in which subaltern groups experiencing the senses could alter the urban configuration they lived. At the same time, it seeks to investigate how other urban social groups and Mediterranean global processes, which also acted and structured the cities, affected the everyday practices and the sensorial experiences of the subaltern groups. Thus, the project aspires to propose pathways for interpreting late antique Carthage urban changes with the sensory experience of subaltern groups as the guiding thread. (AU)