What is it about?
'Necropolitics' is not a word you can look up in a dictionary. However, the effects of necropolitics are readily visible in everyday life. This introductory chapter defines the term, explores the evolution of its meaning, and traces the history of the concept from Michel Foucault's 'biopolitics' to Achille Mbembe's 'necropolitics' and some of its recent redefinitions. Finally, it argues that ‘necropolitics’ can be used productively in the study of premodern societies as well, namely, in our case, the Ancient Greek and Roman ones.
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Why is it important?
Besides offering a concise overview of necropolitics for the uninitiated, this chapter also provides examples of a wide array of applications of necropower and necropolitical violence in Greek Antiquity, thus arguing for the relevance of the concept in the study of premodern societies.
Perspectives
Writing this introduction led me to the realization that necropolitics may be a recently theorized concept but its emergence as a form of governing the living through the deployment of death can be traced in times much older than the ones usually assumed.
Alexandros Velaoras
University of Patras
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This page is a summary of: Introduction: From Necropolitics to Ancient Necropolitics, January 2025, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004718432_002.
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