The first section of the book deals with the history of the relationship of classical studies and anthropology. In the second section the more material aspects of ancient Greek life are considered and the author relates the economic history of the period to new approaches in archaeology and economic anthropology. The place of kinship in the social structure of the Greek city-state; the social factors involved in the genesis of Greek philosophy; and the structural and institutional components of 'freedom' in classical Athens are all examined. First published in 1978.

Originally published in 1983 and as a second edition in 1993, this book deals with 3 universal but culturally variable phenomena: the family, women and death. The book poses questions about our own ways of looking at the family and private life, at sex and gender and at death, by analysing ancient Greek ideas and by showing how researchers’ presuppositions have been influenced by their own culture and experience. The views of Fustel de Coulanges on the place of tomb-cult in the evolution of the family in the ancient world are critically examined and related to their 19th Century context; the study of the classical Athenian family is related to current historical and sociological debates on the separation between public and private life.

The first section of the book deals with the history of the relationship of classical studies and anthropology. In the second section the more material aspects of ancient Greek life are considered and the author relates the economic history of the period to new approaches in archaeology and economic anthropology. The place of kinship in the social structure of the Greek city-state; the social factors involved in the genesis of Greek philosophy; and the structural and institutional components of 'freedom' in classical Athens are all examined. First published in 1978.

The Strangeness of Gods combines studies of changes in modern interpretations of Greek religion with studies of changes in Athenian ritual. The combination is necessary in order to combat influential stereotypes: that Greek religion consisted of ritual without theological speculation, that ritual is inherently conservative. To re-examine the evidence for Greek rituals and their interpretation is also to re-examine our own preconceptions and prejudices. The argument presented by S. C. Humphreys tries to bring Greek texts closer to the "classic" texts of other civilizations, and religion, as a form of speculative thought, closer to science. Her studies of Athenian rituals put this emphasis on changing interpretations into practice, showing that the Athenians thought about their rites as well as celebrating them.

Originally published in 1864 as La Cite Antique, this remarkable work describes society as it existed in Greece during the age of Pericles and in Rome at the time of Cicero. Working with only a fraction of the materials available to today's classical scholar, Fustel de Coulanges fashioned a complete picture of life in the ancient city, resulting in a book impressive today as much for the depth of its portrait as for the thesis it presents. In The Ancient City, Fustel argues that primitive religion constituted the foundation of all civic life. Developing his comparisons between belifes and laws, Fustel covers such topis as rites and festivals; marriage and the family; divorce, death, and burial; and political and legal structures. "Religion," the suthor states, "constituted the Greek and Roman family, established marriage and paternal authority, fixed the order of relationship, and consecrated the right of propery, and the right of inheritance. This same religion, after having enlarged and extended the family, formed a stull larger association, the city, and reigned in that as it had reigned in the family. From it came all the institutions, as well as the private law, of the ancients." As Arnaldo Momigliano and S. C. Humphreys note in their foreword, The Ancient City rightly takes its place alongside a number of pioneering works of the late nineteenth century that offered radically new inerpretations of ancient society and culture. Indeed, modern anthropology, as well as classics, owes a debt to Fustel de Coulanges, whose early insights in The Ancient City remain valid and provocative today.