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Dissertation-Berzon, Complete Classifying Christians: Ethnography, Discovery, and the Limits of Knowledge in Late Antiquity Todd Stephen Berzon Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 ©2013 Todd Stephen Berzon All rights reserved ABSTRACT Classifying Christians: Ethnography, Discovery, and the Limits of Knowledge in Late Antiquity Todd Stephen Berzon This dissertation investigates the ways in which early Christian authors produced ethnography and articulated their ethnographic interests. I analyze the paradigms and techniques Christian writers (150-450 C.E.) used to array, historicize, and polemicize ethnographic “data.” A study of late antique heresiological literature (orthodox treatises about heretics) demonstrates how the rituals, doctrinal beliefs, customs, and historical origins of heretics functioned to map and delimit the composition of the Christian world and the world at large. In a late antique world, polemical and didactic ethnography evidences the coincident attraction and repulsion of discovery and exploration. Oscillating between ancient ethnographic precedents and contemporary ethnographic theory, I argue that the Christianization of ethnography and ethnographic paradigms evidences not totalizing aspirations of authority but a far less secure epistemological and textual timidity: writing and knowing heretics was an endeavor fraught with conceptual incertitude. The heresiologists explicitly ponder the effects and implications of the epistemological limits of ethnographic investigation, the representative capacity and permanence of language, and the unmanageability of ethnographic knowledge. In a late antique world defined by remarkable religious and political change, polemical and didactic ethnography evidences the coincident attraction and repulsion of discovery and exploration. Oscillating between ancient ethnographic precedents and contemporary ethnographic theory, I argue that the Christianization of ethnography and ethnographic paradigms evidences not totalizing aspirations of authority but a far less secure epistemological and textual timidity: writing and knowing heretics and monks was an endeavor fraught with conceptual incertitude. The heresiologists and monastic writers explicitly ponder the effects and implications of the epistemological limits of ethnographic investigation, the representative capacity and permanence of language, and the unmanageability of ethnographic knowledge. My contribution to the burgeoning field of ancient ethnography not only points toward the enduring and potent legacy of Christianity in shaping the language and themes of centuries of ethnographic investigation—opening new lines of inquiry between anthropology and religious studies—but it also demonstrates how Christian authors actively contemplated the limits and danger of investigations of the natural and supernatural worlds. Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................................... iii Dedication ............................................................................................................................................................ ix Introduction. Ancient Ethnography and the Ethnographic Disposition: Writing Knowledge and Constructing Worlds .......................................................................................... 1 Ethnicity, Ethnography, and Early Christianity ........................................................................................... 4 Ancient Ethnography: Genre, Tradition, and History ............................................................................... 13 Investigating Ethnography ............................................................................................................................ 28 Reading Heresiology in Context .................................................................................................................... 34 Heresiology as Ethnography .......................................................................................................................... 43 Outlining the Project: Structure and Chapters .......................................................................................... 54 I. Contesting Ethnography: Heretical Models of Human and Cosmic Plurality .. 59 Rejecting Paradigms: Hippolytus, Astrology, and Heretical Master Narratives ................................... 64 Etiologies Transformed: Hereticizing Mythology, Cosmology, and Human Behavior ........................ 83 Hippolytus’ Master Narrative: The Birth of Heresy and Intellectual Genealogy .................................. 90 Conclusion: Contesting Contours and Uniting Humanity ........................................................................ 97 II. Christianized Ethnography: Paradigms and Languages of Heresy ...................... 100 A Periodized History of Heresy: The Panarion, Genealogy, and Geography ......................................... 104 The Sects as the New Nations of the World .............................................................................................. 119 Theodoret of Cyrrhus’ Master Narrative: A Typological Ordering of Heresy ...................................... 131 Conclusion: Christianizing the World ........................................................................................................ 144 i III. Knowledge Fair and Foul: The Rhetoric of Heresiological Inquiry ................... 147 Heretical Discourse: Problematizing Dialectic and Inquiry .................................................................... 151 The Rhetorics of Heresiological Inquiry: Mastery ................................................................................... 168 The Rhetorics of Heresiological Inquiry: Danger and Fear ..................................................................... 182 Conclusion: Ending Dialogue and Chasing Heresy ................................................................................... 187 IV. Known Unknowns: Ethnographical Limits and the Peril of Discovery ............. 190 Ethnographic Effects: Discovery, Comprehension, and the Unknowable ........................................... 193 The Journey of Heresiology ........................................................................................................................ 201 The Ethnographic Bind of Heresiology ...................................................................................................... 214 Conclusion: Knowability in Heresiological Discourse ............................................................................. 231 V. From Ethnography to List and Back Again: Transcribing and Traversing Heresy .............................................................................................................................................................. 234 Corrective Counting: Armchair Ethnography in Heresiology ................................................................ 237 Distilling Ethnography: Listing Heretics in Texts ................................................................................... 249 Writing and Traversing Heresy: The Limits of Knowledge and Experience ........................................ 265 Crossing the Ethnographic Chasm? ........................................................................................................... 277 Conclusion: Constructing Lacunae ............................................................................................................. 285 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 290 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 301 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As I look back upon the experience of writing my dissertation, I am truly overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who spared far too much time and energy to answer my questions, examine my work, offer bibliographic advice, and, perhaps most importantly, provide useful (i.e. gastronomic) distractions from my perch in Butler Library. I will do my best to express my deepest appreciation to all those who aided me along the way. This process would have been far more onerous and insurmountable without all of you and your relentless encouragement. I do not imagine that I will ever be able to repay the debts I owe you all. For now, please settle for my unalloyed thanks. First and foremost, I must thank my teachers. I begin with four members of my committee who read the dissertation with unrelenting care and acumen. Their support over the years enabled me to produce a far more lucid and coherent final product. Courtney Bender, who served as the chair of my defense committee, patiently answered my myriad questions about contemporary ethnography and ethnographic theory. My project would have been impossible without her repeated interventions. I have benefited from her critical eye and disconcertingly perceptive reading of the ancient world. I can only hope that my knowledge of contemporary ethnography does not embarrass her. Any mistakes or omissions are surely a result
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