Presenter: Don Wyatt, John M. McCardell, Jr. Distinguished Professor, Middlebury College
Abstract: Writing in his influential Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology, in identifying what he considered foremost to be the three foundational constituent elements of any slave society, the prominent classicist, Moses Finley posited that they were “the slave’s property status, the totality of the power over him, and his kinlessness.” The chief paradigm for Finley’s postulations was of course slave society as it had become articulated in the ancient civilizations of Greece and especially Rome. However, much of the potency of Finley’s thesis has rested in its applicability to the later iterations of slave society as it transpired in the West. Nevertheless, let it be noted that, in East Asia of medieval times, we witness noteworthy conformance to but also deviation from Finley’s theorization. Consequently, the slave societies of medieval East Asia serve well in illustrating how, between cultures and across time, the criteria for what constitutes a true slave society can oftentimes vary and deviate even quite profoundly from the assumed Western norm.
