Peter Brown

[Chris Schlect]

Some items of interest, for further reading:

1. For those of you who are interested in the intellectual trajectory of Peter Brown's career (which should be all of you), here is a lecture he delivered in which he explains his own academic autobiography.

http://www.acls.org/Publications/OP/Haskins/2003_PeterBrown.pdf

I should add that any graduate-level work in history (that is worthwhile, anyway) entails getting to know the scholars with whom you interact. Brown's book is as much a reflection of Brown as it is of Western Christendom. It is illuminating see where Brown's work fits within his own life's work, and in the broader academic conversation about its subject.

2. To my very great surprise, somebody uploaded to the web Brown's important and very influential 1971 essay, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity." It's a great piece that I commend to you.

http://www.acls.org/Publications/OP/Haskins/2003_PeterBrown.pdf

CR Schlect





Brown's earlier works, especially his book The Cult of the Saints and his essay, " e Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity," have influenced my own thinking in various ways.

[Chris Schlect]

Here's another great brief about Peter Brown.

http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/brown/

CRS

[Cara Bergeron]

I only read the first brief, but I have a few observations:

1. Doesn't he look like THE quintessential professor of early antiquity?

2. Peter Brown really is an incredible writer. Out of all of the books you've assigned in four classes, Mr. Schlect, he is the most gifted.

3. Having zero background in social anthropology, I'm curious about the meaning of this sentence. Is his grounding in social anthropology formative to his copious writing talent? Can someone explain this to me? "Brown's wide but unobtrusive study of social anthropology sharpened his sense of which questions to ask."

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[Chris Schlect]

See responses to individual points...

On Monday, June 18, 2012 9:27:22 PM UTC-7, Cara Bergeron wrote:

I only read the first brief, but I have a few observations:

1. Doesn't he look like THE quintessential professor of early antiquity?

 

He does have that professorial look about him, doesn't he?!

2. Peter Brown really is an incredible writer. Out of all of the books you've assigned in four classes, Mr. Schlect, he is the most gifted.

What? More gifted than Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus and Bede?!

3. Having zero background in social anthropology, I'm curious about the meaning of this sentence. Is his grounding in social anthropology formative to his copious writing talent? Can someone explain this to me? "Brown's wide but unobtrusive study of social anthropology sharpened his sense of which questions to ask."

Here's a stab at it. (I could be wrong.) Social anthropologists study societies--and usually non-literate societies--by examining the interrelationships of meanings at work within the society. In the absence of conventional documentation to look at (e.g., written records), social anthropologists examine such things as material objects and their use (tools, decorative objects, sacred objects, everyday objects), food, clothing, jokes, song, dance, other behaviors--especially rituals and gestures. Each conveys a peculiar meaning within a given society, and therefore tells us something about that society.

Notice that Brown draws important insights from non-documentary (= non-written) sources. Sure, he interacts with written sources, but his study of the past is by no means limited to them. Think back to some of Brown's insights--sacralized landscapes, for example: he is drawing heavily from social anthropology. It's one of the reasons why Brown is so great, and worth paying attention to.

There's a lot to say on this general topic that we need to discuss further!

CRS

On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 12:55 PM, Chris Schlect <csch...@nsa.edu> wrote:

Here's another great brief about Peter Brown.

http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/brown/

CRS

On Monday, June 18, 2012 10:34:12 AM UTC-7, Chris Schlect wrote:

Some items of interest, for further reading:

1. For those of you who are interested in the intellectual trajectory of Peter Brown's career (which should be all of you), here is a lecture he delivered in which he explains his own academic autobiography.

http://www.acls.org/Publications/OP/Haskins/2003_PeterBrown.pdf

I should add that any graduate-level work in history (that is worthwhile, anyway) entails getting to know the scholars with whom you interact. Brown's book is as much a reflection of Brown as it is of Western Christendom. It is illuminating see where Brown's work fits within his own life's work, and in the broader academic conversation about its subject.

2. To my very great surprise, somebody uploaded to the web Brown's important and very influential 1971 essay, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity." It's a great piece that I commend to you.

http://www.acls.org/Publications/OP/Haskins/2003_PeterBrown.pdf

CR Schlect





Brown's earlier works, especially his book The Cult of the Saints and his essay, " e Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity," have influenced my own thinking in various ways.

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[George Harrell]

I don't have much to add to this, except that Peter Brown is so awesome. 

On Monday, June 18, 2012 10:34:12 AM UTC-7, Chris Schlect wrote:

[Jasmine]

I will definitely be reading "A Life of Learning" at some point when the summer's over!