December - 2024

A primeira igreja cristã (Fonte Editorial, 2024, 464 pages, R$109.90), by Juliana Batista Cavalcanti, is an anthropological and historical analysis of the first Christians in the Roman city of Dura-Europos, in Syria. Based on archaeological evidence from a house-church located near a synagogue and a mithraeum, as well as three portraits of Jesus dating from the 3rd century, the author seeks to understand the cultural influences and daily relationships between the first Christians, Jews, and polytheists present in the region. For the author, it is possible to glimpse a network of subjectivity between these subjects, so that there are mutual influences in the development of their religious identities, which generates religious tolerance between these groups. Thus, it is possible to understand in a broader way the domestic environment and daily coexistence, as well as the cultural intertwinings, of these different groups.

Valuing Labour in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Brill, 2024, 423 pages, $153), edited by Kim Bowes and Miko Flohr, addresses the idea of ​​work in different contexts, as well as what types of work have value and under what circumstances. Using a wide variety of sources, from archaeological evidence to agronomic treatises, the authors seek to contextualize the real experiences of work in Antiquity. For the authors, work was embedded in social life, yet it was treated, in various contexts and often by workers themselves, as secondary to their social and family ties. The authors also argue that there was a general knowledge about labor technique and qualifications, and that non-professionals should be able to recognize technique and quality. Thus, far from being a negative aspect, work is rooted in social life as a source of pride.