Sojourn in Turkey, Day 8: Aphrodisias, Selcuk
Today we took a 3-hour bus ride 2,000 feet up into the mountains to visit Aphrodisias, which is a Roman city that was in the middle of nowhere. Of course we learned about the cult of Aphrodite while we were there, but we mainly focused on the theater and the gigantic stadium, which seats 30,000. It was huge, so I dared my hardcore runner friend, Jeri-Katherine, so run the length of the stadium... and she took off! We got it on film. :o)
But that was last. Let me begin at the beginning, with the theater. It was interesting because it was built by an imperial freedman- just goes to show you how powerful even ex-slaves could be! The amazing thing, beyond its incredible size, was all the panels between the columns on three sides, depicting mythology, imperial history, and interestingly, the different peoples that made up the Roman Empire. The way that they dealt with race then was very similar to how sociologists advocate today: ethnicity. They had "Ethnos Ioudiaos" (the Jewish People), Bulgaria, Crete, and Ethiopia, among others. I thought that was the most interesting part. Also, the artifacts were amazing, particularly the ceramic pots, and so were the sculptures.
There was a cat who followed us around all day and led us straight to the temple of Aphrodite. We decided she was Aphrodite in cat form and asked for her blessing, LOL.
After another 3-hour car ride, we arrived in Selcuk and most everybody got right to work on their class presentations. Since I was done with my presentation, I took off with some friends who were also done and went to dinner. Then Jeri-Katherine and I decided to go shopping, and shop we did! I got some pastor pants and a nice sweater vest to go with it for only $15 American. 70% off? Heck yeah! It's not so good for the Turks, but with the American dollar rising against the New Turkish Lira, my dollars go pretty far. I'm actually under budget for this trip.
Then I quickly revised my presentation, made some handouts, and went to bed in preparation for the big day tomorrow!
This is a good place to talk about race and ethnicity, as I promised earlier. I've heard a lot of people in Boston struggling with divorcing ethnic identity from the color of a person's skin. The problem with hangups on skin color is evidenced by talking to anyone here. A lot of people in America, particularly in my hometown, would group Turks with "Arabs" because of their skin color. But ask any Turk in Selcuk, and they'll tell you they aren't Arabs (well, they're not). They're just Turkish- it's their ethnic identity that matters. As we clearly see from the theater panels at Aphrodisias, the Romans thought of ethnicity in a similar way to the ethnicity model. Of course, they did the whole conquering thing, and their depictions of conquered nations as helpless women is enough to steam the goggles of even a nominal feminist. And it's clear who's in an who's out in the Roman world because those who are out have "ethnos" in front of the name. Clearly, race functioned the same way in their society as it does in ours: those in the dominant group cannot percieve their own racial identity (invisibility). In short, no culture is immune to the effects of systems like race/ethnicity and gender. But there are more helpful and less helpful ways to think about these things, and I think in the case of ethnicity, we can learn a few things from our friends in the Mediterranean.
P.S. As I alluded to in an earlier post, there's nothing like going to a country in which you are an ethnic minority to point out how embarrassing white power is!
But that was last. Let me begin at the beginning, with the theater. It was interesting because it was built by an imperial freedman- just goes to show you how powerful even ex-slaves could be! The amazing thing, beyond its incredible size, was all the panels between the columns on three sides, depicting mythology, imperial history, and interestingly, the different peoples that made up the Roman Empire. The way that they dealt with race then was very similar to how sociologists advocate today: ethnicity. They had "Ethnos Ioudiaos" (the Jewish People), Bulgaria, Crete, and Ethiopia, among others. I thought that was the most interesting part. Also, the artifacts were amazing, particularly the ceramic pots, and so were the sculptures.
There was a cat who followed us around all day and led us straight to the temple of Aphrodite. We decided she was Aphrodite in cat form and asked for her blessing, LOL.
After another 3-hour car ride, we arrived in Selcuk and most everybody got right to work on their class presentations. Since I was done with my presentation, I took off with some friends who were also done and went to dinner. Then Jeri-Katherine and I decided to go shopping, and shop we did! I got some pastor pants and a nice sweater vest to go with it for only $15 American. 70% off? Heck yeah! It's not so good for the Turks, but with the American dollar rising against the New Turkish Lira, my dollars go pretty far. I'm actually under budget for this trip.
Then I quickly revised my presentation, made some handouts, and went to bed in preparation for the big day tomorrow!
This is a good place to talk about race and ethnicity, as I promised earlier. I've heard a lot of people in Boston struggling with divorcing ethnic identity from the color of a person's skin. The problem with hangups on skin color is evidenced by talking to anyone here. A lot of people in America, particularly in my hometown, would group Turks with "Arabs" because of their skin color. But ask any Turk in Selcuk, and they'll tell you they aren't Arabs (well, they're not). They're just Turkish- it's their ethnic identity that matters. As we clearly see from the theater panels at Aphrodisias, the Romans thought of ethnicity in a similar way to the ethnicity model. Of course, they did the whole conquering thing, and their depictions of conquered nations as helpless women is enough to steam the goggles of even a nominal feminist. And it's clear who's in an who's out in the Roman world because those who are out have "ethnos" in front of the name. Clearly, race functioned the same way in their society as it does in ours: those in the dominant group cannot percieve their own racial identity (invisibility). In short, no culture is immune to the effects of systems like race/ethnicity and gender. But there are more helpful and less helpful ways to think about these things, and I think in the case of ethnicity, we can learn a few things from our friends in the Mediterranean.
P.S. As I alluded to in an earlier post, there's nothing like going to a country in which you are an ethnic minority to point out how embarrassing white power is!