Agricultural Labour and Lived Experience in Ancient Greece: Sweat and Hunger

Author:   Maeve McHugh (University of Birmingham, UK.)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN:  

9780367478643


Pages:   194
Publication Date:   05 December 2025
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

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Agricultural Labour and Lived Experience in Ancient Greece: Sweat and Hunger


Overview

This book explores the experience of labour for ancient Greek farming communities using historical, archaeological, bioarchaeological, and ethnographic data. It offers a compelling and methodologically innovative approach using the moral economy, taskscapes, and embodiment as interpretative frames. Reconstructing the lived experience of ancient farmers, the book defines the physical, conceptual, and ideological contours of the farmer’s world. It highlights the complex, embedded, and entangled nature of Greek agrarian life and draws on a wide range of interdisciplinary evidence to create a cultural history of rural labour. By moving beyond economic abstractions, the study reframes agricultural labour as a meaningful social and bodily practice, central to identity, community, and survival. The book will be of particular interest to researchers and students of ancient history, archaeology, gender studies, and rural studies. It also appeals to readers interested in labour, embodiment, the moral economy, and reconstructing antiquity through everyday experience.

Full Product Details

Author:   Maeve McHugh (University of Birmingham, UK.)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.550kg
ISBN:  

9780367478643


ISBN 10:   0367478641
Pages:   194
Publication Date:   05 December 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

1 The Farmer’s Experience; 2 Farming from the Ground Up; 3 Between Sweat and Hunger: Fables and the Moral Economy of Agrarian Life; 4 The Embodied Labour of Women in Agriculture; 5 Embodied Labour: Biomechanical Stress and Agrarian Work in Rural Greece; 6 Conclusion: Reclaiming the Farmer’s Experience

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Author Information

Dr Maeve McHugh, University of Birmingham, is a classical archaeologist specialising in the reconstruction of rural communities through archaeological, historical, literary, and ethnographic sources. Her research focuses on the lived experiences of non-elite and marginalised groups in the ancient world, with a particular interest in embodiment, labour, and rural life.

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Latest Reading Guide

NOV RG 20252

 

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