cattle, if the tribe is a pastoral one, they are the usual form of investment
for a profit.’^43 The style of generalization may be too sweeping and over-
simplistic to contemporary ears. At the same time it has the merit of a
broad model, which allows more detailed refinement. It is a good enough
outline. The societies that we are looking at in the northern Aegean,
whether those living inland, or along the coastal fringe, enjoyed climatic
conditions that favoured investment in pastoral resources. Cattle, pigs,
horses, and other equids are much more prominent in this region than
they were farther south. In this landscape of pastoral exploitation,
women have a prominence that can be read even from the scarce textual
evidence that refers to them, while the material record speaks very clearly
indeed. The accoutrements of female attire and ornament in the north
Aegean, their representation in the ritual sphere, and their symbolic
treatment in death, are all factors that point to quite specific narratives
of female behaviour.^44 The visible spectrum of evidence may only apply
to some women, a sample that very likely includes socially prominent
females. Nevertheless, this language of representation does seem to
emphasize the status of some women in a way that would be rather
unusual in central and southern Greece at least. To this set of general
observations we can add some specific clues. Strabo refers to the polyg-
amous practices of wealthy Thracians and thus adds some extracts from
lost plays by Menander to what Herodotus had already described in his
digression on Thracian customs in theHistories.^45 The geographer seems
to include this material partly because of its exotic value, and partly
because it suits the moral argument, in this section of his work, about
consumption and abstinence. Strabo’s evaluation is not inconsistent with
Veblen’s broader-brush approach.
Veblen goes on to describe the progressive‘exemption’of personnel
from productive employment, as domestic service replaced manual
labour, and dependants indulged in‘vicarious’consumption, imitating
the tastes and manners of their masters and mistresses.^46 He was talking
about his own lifetime, but his understanding of the connections
between social status and taste is applicable to other periods. The
(^43) Veblen 1899 [2007], 39–40; see also Banta’s comments on Veblen’s revolutionary
attitude to women’s social roles in contemporary society, xxi–xxii.
(^44) For the status of Macedonian women, see Carney 2010 and Archibald 2005b; Mace-
donian élite female burials: Archibald 2005b; élite female Thracian burials: Archibald 1998,
15845 – 76; see further Ch. 8.
Str. 7.3.3, citing Poseidonios and Menander (frs 794–795, Körte-Thierfelder = frs
547 – 548, Kock); 7.3.4 (C297),Misogynes(fr. 326, Körte-Thierfelder; fr. 326, Kock); Baladié
1989, 179–89 with comments; Hdt. 5.5.
(^46) Veblen 1899 [2007], 35–7, 39–40.
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