La proprietà privata a Roma, tra violence e care: The Dawn of Everything nella lettura di uno storico del mondo antico

Pietro Taetti

Abstract:

This paper takes its cue from a very critical review of The Dawn of Everything by French Roman historian Thibaud Lanfranchi, published in the journal Sociétés plurielles. After briefly reviewing the core aspects of Lanfranchi’s criticisms of Graeber and Wengrow’s theoretical and methodological approach, this paper addresses two issues concerning the book’s contribution to our understanding of Roman history. The first one has to do with the impact of Roman property law on the post-Roman European legal tradition, with particular regard to the so-called ius abutendi or «right of abuse». The second issue touches on power and property relations within the ancient family, «between violence and care». An ensuing brief discussion on the theme of ownership of domesticated animals as a conceptual model for both private and public forms of control should allow us to both broaden the perspective advocated by The Dawn of Everything and to test the heuristic productiveness of the categories utilized by Graeber and Wengrow. The paper closes with some general considerations on the research and intellectual potential of the models and ideas put forward and discussed in The Dawn of Everything.