고대 시칠리아의 문화 교류 = Cross-cultural Encounters in Ancient Sicily

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The time of the Phoenician and Greek expansion (from ca. 800 BC) into the Mediterranean marks a turning point for the entire region and also for the island of Sicily in the center of the sea. One aspect that is of particular interest in the research of cultural interchanges is the way how people of different cultural backgrounds encountered each other and how they responded to these contact situations. Sicily is one of the areas that is well covered by historical and archaeological sources, which renders it an interesting testing ground for these kind of enquires.
The present article aims to ascertain the modes of encounters between Greek and local communities and how the relationship between these communities changed over time. As a reference for describing the situation adequately, basic insights from social psychology are applied. Since the colonization process lasted for several generations, three time stages for the observation of the development are defined and discussed. Due to the adoption of Greek material culture and customs by the local population an early Hellenization process can be observed for the local Sicilian communities. Although the applied framework allows for a better description of the encounters for each time stage, the actual reasons for the inclusion of Greek cultural elements into the local culture are not covered by that. Therefore, the present article offers an explanation derived from anthropology and world history, which emphasizes the role of single agents for spreading Greek culture among the local communities and how the local elite accepted these elements from their Greek counterparts through voluntary association in order to become part of the wider Mediterranean communication network.