Academics and culture collided this week on the program. First, we discussed Athenian democracy and the history of coinage in the ancient Greek world in class. These topics are particularly relevant to me as I happen to be most interested in politics and economics (both of the ancient and modern times.) Outside of class, we decided to go watch a movie in theaters, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. I wasn’t expecting it, but this movie ended up drawing lots of parallels to the bronze age, and specifically Mycenaean society. Last, I got to experience an amazing dinner with my peers in which topics from my sociology class crept in.
In class, my two favorite topics to think about generally were discussed–– politics, and economics. In lectures from preeminent experts, we talked about how Athenian politics works and how ancient economics developed with the rise of coinage. As it turns out, much of the Athenian conception of politics (through its use of its form of democracy) helped inform the modern political and institutional structure, at least in the United States. We see similarities between Athens and modern politics like the primacy of the rule of law, with mechanisms designed to limit states of exceptions that erode this rule of law. In Athenian times, such laws were challenged as being illegal according to another law, and then challenged by their court, which is an early form of judicial review. In Athens, politics merged with economics, with the state introducing monetary incentives to attend council meetings. This was possible because of the invention of coinage, which allowed for society in the Greek world to grow in complexity. Coinage made trade easier and also solidified the importance of the state in everyday life. The transactions carried out on a day-to-day basis utilized institutions of the state and remained the people of the power of the central authority.
Moving from class to leisure, we went to go see the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. To my surprise, I couldn’t escape thinking about our class and making connections between the movie and what we had learned. The movie had all the trappings of what seemed like Mycenean (or at least a bronze-age society). In the movie, a powerful ape forcefully removed various villages from their home and brought them to a palatial center under his control. The structure of this center seemed to have large amounts of inequality and even had a megaron-type structure. The ruler himself wore a crown that reminded me of the horns of consecration. By the end of the movie, the protagonist decided to rebel against this power and succeeds, therefore wiping out the palatial center and returning back to their smaller village––similar to the bronze age collapse. I was also struck by how the humans of our time influenced the material landscape of the movie (it took place in the future) and was interested in how their society would think about this landscape in later movies. All in all, I was really surprised and happy that I could make these connections between popular culture and our class.
Last, on Thursday I along with some of my peers used some of our extra food budget to enjoy a 15-course meal from a Michelin-starred restaurant near our apartment. This was an extraordinary experience that again, to my surprise, tied into my coursework. In our sociology class, we discussed how Greek society, having developed quite rapidly and recently, has a closer connection with their foodways than in the US. This was apparent in our meal. We were told stories of where the food came from and how much of it was produced in certain regions of Greece or the Mediterranean, with much of the produce coming from the restaurant’s own private garden. Moreover, in keeping with the long tradition of Greek production the dishes served on were local Athenian pottery, made by the chef’s wife and her shop. This meal was an incredibly enriching experience that I am happy to have gone on. Overall this week brought me great enjoyment. There was lots to do and the connections between my coursework and my experiences outside of the classroom were fascinating. These connections and others like them have truly made my time on this OCS special.
