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Mary Harlow is Honorary Associate Professor of Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK.A thick, tangled and deliciously idiosyncratic history of hair ... There is plenty to inform and intrigue.
Times Literary Supplement
This fascinating book, with its range of interdisciplinary approaches, reveals the central role that hair played in fundamental ancient ideas concerning social status, gender and morality.
- Jerry Toner, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, UK,
Covering a broad timespan, this fascinating, image-rich book offers essays individually focused upon important topics including health, gender, religion, status, and the practicalities of “doing hair” in antiquity. The volume is a wonderful contribution to the cultural history of antiquity.
- Alicia J. Batten, Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo, Canada,
[A] wide-ranging, engaging, and thought-provoking study that pays some much-needed scholarly attention to the consistently overlooked subject of hair in the ancient Mediterranean. Its authors go far beyond the standard and obvious topics of beauty and fashion to offer both a rigorous and nuanced approach … This is a valuable addition to scholarship on many and diverse aspects of ancient social and cultural history.
- Jane Draycott, University of Glasgow, UK,
“A thick, tangled and deliciously idiosyncratic history of hair.” Times Literary Supplement
Hair, or lack of it, is one the most significant identifiers of individuals in any society. In Antiquity, the power of hair to send a series of social messages was no different. This volume covers nearly a thousand years of history, from Archaic Greece to the end of the Roman Empire, concentrating on what is now Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Among the key issues identified by its authors is the recognition that in any given society male and female hair tend to be opposites (when male hair is generally short, women’s is long); that hair is a marker of age and stage of life (children and young people have longer, less confined hairstyles; adult hair is far more controlled); hair can be used to identify the ‘other’ in terms of race and ethnicity but also those who stand outside social norms such as witches and mad women.
The chapters in A Cultural History of Hair in Antiquity cover the following topics: religion and ritualized belief, self and society, fashion and adornment, production and practice, health and hygiene, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and social status, and cultural representations.
Series Preface
Introduction
1. Religion and Ritualized Belief, Mary Harlow and Lena Larsson Lovén
2. Self and Society, Katharine A. Schwab and Marice Rose
3. Fashion and Adornment, Kelly Olson
4. Production and Practice, Janet Stephens
5. Health and Hygiene, Lydia Matthews
6. Gender and Sexuality, Mary Harlow
7. Race and Ethnicity, Marguerite Johnson
8. Class and Social Status, Susan Stewart
9. Cultural Representations, Glenys Davies
Notes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
The Cultural Histories are multi-volume sets that survey the social and cultural construction of specific subjects across six historical periods, broadly:
- Antiquity
- The Medieval Age
- The Early Modern Age
- The Age of Enlightenment
- The Age of Empire
- The Modern Age
The subjects covered range from Animals to Dress and Fashion, from Sport to Furniture, from Money to Fairy Tales. Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters so that readers may gain an understanding of a period by reading an entire volume, or follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume. Each six-volume set is illustrated.
Titles are available as printed sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or perpetual access (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com).
PRAISE FOR THE SERIES
A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion
“Intriguing, surprising, and thought-provoking essays covering many cultural layers of dress history.”
CHOICE
A Cultural History of Fairy Tales
“A comprehensive treatise that belongs in every academic library concerned with a form of literature that has had broad appeal for centuries and continues to do so.”
CHOICE
A Cultural History of Hair
“A thick, tangled and deliciously idiosyncratic history of hair.”
Times Literary Supplement
A Cultural History of Law
“These introductions should be of great use to scholars from across the periods.”
Law & Literature
A Cultural History of Peace
“The set is a good introduction to the study of peace and encourages looking at world history in a new way.”
CHOICE
A Cultural History of Theatre
“All six volumes are aesthetically attractive, with well-chosen cover illustrations in color and numerous halftones throughout. Page layouts with wide margins, good paper, subtitles, generous bibliographies, notes, and index all add to the appeal.”
CHOICE
A Cultural History of Tragedy
“A highly contemporary work, alert to politics, social theory and sexuality.”
London Review of Books
A Cultural History of Western Empires
“Students seeking a comparative, interdisciplinary, and compelling account of the spread of Western empires will find much of interest here.”
CHOICE
A Cultural History of Work
“[Programs] such as economics, American and world history, women’s studies, and art history will benefit from the information herein.”
American Reference Books Annual