Diritto, in M. Bettini (cur.), L’antropologia del mondo antico (Bologna 2025) 106-114.

This chapter explores the relationship between Roman law and the anthropology of the ancient world. It situates this perspective within the development of early twentieth-century French sociology and anthropology, and engages with more recent methodological approaches, in particular those of Yan Thomas and Marie Theres Fögen. It shows that Roman legal sources cannot be approached in a sectorial way, since in a society regulated in every aspect of life law shaped the broader frameworks of meaning within which social behaviours were understood. From family and property to the organization of the state and the position of the individual, Roman law offered a vast field of inquiry for the anthropology of the ancient world. Against both the traditional isolation of Roman law and the tendency of other disciplines to overlook technical legal sources, the chapter argues for an integrated reading of legal, literary, and anthropological evidence. In this perspective, ius emerges not as a sectorial domain, but as a forma mentis structuring time, space, rhetorical language, literature, iconography, and even the emotions.