Dangerous Gifts: Gender and Exchange in Ancient Greece

Acknowledgments

xi Because this book has taken quite a long time to write, I find myself in the awkward position of having to acknowledge more debts than I can hope to remember. I implore the many friends and colleagues whose insights have so often pointed me in the right direction or opened up a new way of thinking to forgive me if I have neglected to give them credit. The writing of this book has benefitted from a Mellon fellowship at Harvard University, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; a fellowship at the Center for Hellenic Studies; and a year at the National Humanities Center, supported by the Lilly Endowment and the Research Triangle Fund. I thank the fellows and staff of these institutions for all their help and encouragement. Particularly warm mention is due to Deborah Boedeker and Kurt Raaflaub, directors of the Center for Hellenic Studies, for their intellectual example and the amazing hospitality they offered those fortunate enough to be in residence during their tenure. Thanks are also due to Miami University for summer research support. The associates of the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Rochester provided much-needed support. The Classics Department of the Johns Hopkins University offered a welcoming berth for the five years I was there. The Classics Department of Miami University has provided me with a permanent home and a grateful end to the life of the itinerant scholar. I owe a debt for their many helpful comments to audiences at Wesleyan University, SUNY Buffalo, Amherst College, Duke University, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill and Greensboro, Feminism and Classics Conferences III and V, Union College, Rice University, University of Chicago , the University of Michigan, the University of Iowa, and the Johns Hopkins University. Portions of this book appeared in Classical Antiquity 22 (2003) as the article “Dangerous Gifts: Ideologies of Marriage and Exchange in Ancient Greece.” I thank the editors for permission to reuse this material, much of which forms the nucleus of Chapter Five. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Lyons-final.indb xi Lyons-final.indb xi 1/31/12 3:19:26 PM 1/31/12 3:19:26 PM DANGEROUS GIFTS xii I owe great thanks to Jim Burr, my patient editor for this project, and to Joanna Hitchcock, my first editor ever, and former director of the University of Texas Press. Her retirement, although well deserved, is nonetheless a great loss to the field of Classics. Silvia Montiglio and James Redfield made invaluable comments on the manuscript in their capacity as readers for the Press. Sherry Wert, copyeditor extraordinaire, saved me from countless errors . Ayham Ghraowi’s cover design captures the essence of this book more brilliantly than I had any right to expect. Friends and colleagues who deserve mention include Carla Antonaccio , Bradley Ault, Karen Bassi, Fred Bohrer, Mary Baine Campbell, Rick Griffiths, Debra Hershkowitz, Nick Humez, Michele Longino, Irad Malkin , Lisa Maurizio, Laura McClure, Lynette Mitchell, Deborah Modrak, Sarah Morris, Gregory Nagy, Steve Nimis, Robin Osborne, Matthew Roller, Peter Rose, Alan Shapiro, Moshe Sluhovsky, Benjamin Sutcliffe, Hans van Wees, and David Weinstock. Although I never succeeded in convincing him that Melanesia was suf- ficiently near ancient Greece to be of any use, I owe much to Raymond Westbrook, who read my drafts and argued amiably with me about many points in this volume. His untimely death is a great loss to scholarship and to all who knew him. Michael Herzfeld, my cicerone to the world of anthropology, has been unfailingly helpful, but is wholly blameless for the inevitable lapses of a nonspecialist. None of those thanked are to be faulted for the failings of this book. Had I only heeded their advice more completely, it would undoubtedly be better. In a heroic display of sibling reciprocity, Jonathan Lyons read and commented on the entire manuscript in one day—as luck would have it, only a few weeks after I had done the same for him. Benjamin Lyons, always a challenging interlocutor, also called my attention to the invaluable work of David Graeber. My mother Evelyn Lyons commented on drafts and provided much-needed encouragement. My father Will Lyons, an economist, listened patiently to my accounts of economic behavior that defied all his models. The love and support of my family has meant more to me than I can say. This book was always going to be dedicated, as is appropriate to the...