Relativism and the Frontiers of Empire

Critical Perspectives on Roman Soldiers, Communities and Military Landscapes

Walas, Anna (ed.)
Birley, Andrew (ed.)

This volume explores Rome’s frontiers through the lens of cultural relativism, integrating post-colonial and positional approaches. It emphasizes the scholar’s standpoint in shaping knowledge and recontextualizes frontier studies within broader cultural frameworks.
Relativism and the Frontiers of Empire captures a moment in the development of agendas in the study of Rome’s frontiers, whilst highlighting the legacy of a classic anthropological concept. The volume adopts the theme of cultural relativism as an umbrella term, which allows opening to a range of post-colonial, positional and relational approaches that rely on contextualising frontiers within their cultural frameworks and recognising the significance of the standpoint of the scholar in production of knowledge; the two key tenets of anthropological cultural relativism.