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How much is a man worth. Slavery and market of individual identities in early modern Naples and Valencia

Objective

This research aims to study the identity formation processes of slaves and captives in the Mediterranean between 16th and 17th centuries. It will do so by analysing the slaves markets of Naples and Valencia, two of the most important trading cities of the Spanish Empire. The project will combine different types of unexplored archival sources including the trials on slaves to be found within the Archivo del Reino of Valencia and a unique source represented by the book nr. 42 coming from Secretaría de Estado of the Archivo General de Simancas. The latter is as of now the most detailed source available on Mediterranean slavery, outlining the profiles of 657 slaves and captives aboard 26 privately-operated Neapolitan galleys in 1585. These sources will make it possible to focus in depth on the biography of slaves and the process of calculating their price.
Through this analysis, my project aims to significantly contribute to two historiographical mainstreams: Mediterranean slavery and formation of personal identities in ancient regime. The underlying idea is that at the core of both these phenomena was an estimation process of 'how much is a man (and woman) worth' including social, psychological and economic aspects.
To this end, I propose to read together the two topics (formation of personal identities and slavery) by doing a microanalytical study of men forced to labour. The main references for this analysis will be the micro-sociology of prices
elaborated by Bourdieu and Boltanski and recent studies on social estimation processes in history, focusing on biographies as well as using case-studies oriented methodology.
The fellowship will include a significant secondment to EHESS in Paris, and will result in the third monograph of the researcher on negotiated identities in modern Mediterranean.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2017

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 158 121,60
Address
AVENIDA BLASCO IBANEZ 13
46010 Valencia
Spain

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Region
Este Comunitat Valenciana Valencia/València
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 158 121,60
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