Last week, I posted about education in the Etruscan world, based on my reading on the topic. Earlier today, I posted a bit about the process it has been
to try and contact someone for an oral interview this week. It was really a lot
more work than I planned to put into this class. However, something finally
came through!
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| A bronze Etruscan helmet (a piece of art, not an actual helmet), probably made for someone's tomb. |
I just got off the phone with Megan Schulthies, who is
working on her Ph.D. in history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and
is specializing in Etruscology, which is the study of the Etruscan
civilization. Megan earned her BA in history from NYU before getting an MPhil at
Cambridge. (I was given her contact information by an acquaintance of mine who
was in the same MPhil program.) She is now working on a Ph.D. that is in history in general, but UMass Amherst houses the Center for Etruscan Studies, and that was a huge part of why she chose that particular school. We didn’t have a lot of time on the phone, but I
really appreciate her being able to work me into her busy schedule on short
notice.
What follows is some of the text of my interview with Megan. I figured I'd let you read her words rather than just mine.
Why did you choose to
specialize in Etruscology?
I first learned about the Etruscans as a high schooler and
was fascinated. I was fascinated by all ancient cultures, really, but
especially by the Etruscans, I think just because I had never heard of them
previously, and because we know so little about them overall. After my senior
year, I went to Italy on a vacation with my family, and learned a little bit
more about the Etruscans. From there, I just kept reading books and writing
undergraduate research papers and looking for opportunities to learn. I felt it
was important to get a broad-based education, so my specialization really
hasn’t been exclusive, but the Etruscans really just became a favorite of mine.
What can you tell me
about the importance of oral knowledge to the Etruscans?
I don’t necessarily think that that the Etruscans relied on
oral knowledge any more than other civilizations did, but they probably relied
on written knowledge, in books and papers and things, a lot less. Maybe that
doesn’t really make a lot of sense, but for me, it is an important distinction.
I don’t really believe that the Etruscans put a purposeful emphasis on oral
knowledge or the transmission of oral knowledge. It’s really just that they
didn’t produce a lot of texts, so we assume that there was a lot of oral
knowledge that was never recorded and has been lost. But we do know that the
Etruscans had university-like institutes, like Tarquinii. They learned and
taught there, and their religion involved lot of varied and complex knowledge
of doctrine and practices, and that was probably taught orally. Then, of
course, there are all of those aspects of everyday life that tend to be taught
in an oral fashion rather than a formal, written one—things like how to keep
the bread from burning, or how to tell morning from evening, or what you are
supposed to eat at what time of year. But yeah, oral knowledge was very
important to the Etruscans, presumably.
Does that lack of
texts make it difficult to study the Etruscans today?
Oh, absolutely. It means we have to study them in a very
different way. We rely a lot more upon anthropology than you might if you
studied, say, the Greeks. But one thing I should mention is that there are a number
of Etruscan texts. Inscriptions on pottery, haruspices, things like that. We
just don’t really have literature. But here at UMass, they’ve started the ETP,
the Etruscan Texts Project, which is all about collecting and compiling all
available Etruscan texts, however short or seemingly mundane or insignificant.
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| Etruscan texts |
What would you
recommend for someone who is interested in learning more about Etruscology?
Oh, just read anything you can get your hands on. For a
person who is new to the field, Sybille Haynes’s book Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History is a good starting point.
Stoddart’s Historical Dictionary of theEtruscans could be fun too. I liked it. Once you’re more familiar with the
civilization as a whole, I’d recommend checking out Rasenna, the journal published by the UMass Amherst Center for
Etruscan Studies. It’s available online and is one of the only English-language
serious academic journals for Etruscology.
It must be frustrating to try and research a people that didn't leave much behind for us to read and interpret. I wonder how much just comes down to guessing about the Etruscans and really doesn't tell us exactly how it "really was". I wonder how much of history was different than how we write it in the history books. I think sometimes we are too confident in our own knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThere is the saying that history is written by the victorious. We write a history that shows us as the great heros. The whole notion that we can ever reach the "real" or what actually happens is absurd. (of course excepting the rare instances in which for a fraction of a moment we see things as the Allknowing sees them. But I will wager freely that these moments rarely if ever touch on anthropological conundrums)
ReplyDeleteI thought Megan made an interesting point that the Etruscans didn't rely on oral knowledge more than anyone else they just relied on written knowledge less. I am still trying to get my head wrapped around this considering the fact they had university things.
If anyone has a insight I would appreciate it.
Well, I guess (there we go with that word again when applying to history) that the universities were similar to ours, but then take out any notes, any textbooks, and any computers. What would it be like, and how would our experience have been different? I think we would have memorized a lot more, and paid attention better in class. The lectures would be formatted in a more rhetoric style, with memorization helps built in. We would participate in study groups more often, where we shared everything we can remember about the lecture that morning, and everyone else shares too, and slowly we put it all back together. We would actually go and talk to our teachers outside of class, to learn more about a subject, or fill in the gaps in our knowledge. And of course, we would have exams, but they would be like interviews with our teachers or a higher level student. That's how I picture Etruscan Universities. I kind of like how it sounds too, with all that personal interaction.
ReplyDeleteI likde Megan Schulthies' comment that we have to study the Etruscans more like an anthropologist rather than just reading their history. Going along with what Morgan said, the Etruscan universities would be more personable and specific to the individual. I think that by studying the Etruscans from an anthropologist's point of view, we can have that same type of experience with others that study with us, because it is more discussion based rather than just reading.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to comment on what prof Schulthies said concerning the oral knowledge. I think what she said about not necessarily focusing on oral history or knowledge but focusing less on writing mirrors a lot of other cultures. It speaks to how natural and ordinary talking is for human beings. We don't think about it we just talk. We as modern citizens say an ancient civilization focuses on oral history. However, in my opinion, a more accurate way to phrase it would be: the ancient civilization did not put an emphasis or focus on written knowledge and naturally they just relied on the normal way of communicating history, knowledge, experiences etc- simply talking.
ReplyDelete