2022-23

The aim of the course is to introduce first-year students to the various aspects of folklore, the subject itself, the content of folklore, its aims, its history, the methods it employs and to the basic bibliography. There will be extensive reference to the path followed in Greece by folklore, from the observation and recording of folklore in antiquity, during the Byzantine to the post-Byzantine and modern period. The course will also make reference to how folklore developed in the rest of Europe, America and internationally before and after the Second World War.

The course introduces students to the chief concepts and principles of demography and to the basic techniques employed in the study of demographic phenomena. Particular emphasis is laid upon the links between demography and biological, historical, social and economic phenomena and the cultural features of various human populations.

The course deals with the main aspects of the Byzantine state and society, including political theory, governmental organization, social structure and economic life. It deals with the course of Byzantine history from its founder, Constantine the Great (324 - 337 AD) to the capture of Constantinople in 1453.