The Epistemics of Mass Enslavement: Outlining a Research Program

Abstract

Proceeding from the claim that, in general, the relevance of forms of labor to the history of knowledge has been routinely under-emphasized, this paper sets out a series of propositions for linking shifts in knowledge production to the emergence and intensification of mass enslavement in the ancient Mediterranean. (1) Societies that practice mass enslavement cultivate and sustain epistemic practices that are patterned around and feed into mass enslavement. (2) These epistemic practices assume literary as well as non-literary forms. (3) These epistemic practices vary in scale, intensity, and durability according to the scale, intensity, and duration of that society’s practice of mass enslavement.