[lbo-talk] Slavery in the Ancient World Re: The State and Capitalism

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Wed Mar 12 14:52:20 PDT 2008


Chris Doss wrote:
>
>
> We have no way of knowing what everybody thought, but
> given no evidence I am leery of ascribing our value
> system to them. It reminds me of attempts to find
> atheists in the Middle Ages.

[You should be equally leary about ascribing our 'values' (e.g., the necessity of money for complex cultures) to the future.]

Probably. I'm not sure what current scholarship is on Omar (and of course Fitzgerald can't be trusted), but literal translations of some of his quatrains are pretty near to what most would call atheism. Or does "medieval" only mean "European"?

I forget my source, but I seem to recall that the Spartacists were not against slavery as such; only against being slaves themselves.

M.I. Finley wrote an interesting book, _Ancient Slavery and Modern Idoelogy_, but it's been 20 years since I read it.

Carrol



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