Julia Snyder: Social Formations in the Acts of Peter

This paper will explore salient social formations in the Acts of Peter, a rich and colorful narrative tradition tracing to the early centuries CE. Building on the work of scholars such as Judith Perkins, Kate Cooper, and Helen Rhee, and drawing on insights from social anthropology, this paper will sketch the range of social variables that are salient at key points in the story, considering economic, cultic, gender, ethnic, linguistic, vocational, and other factors. Attention will be paid to fluidity in the salience of these variables and to the particular ways in which they are introduced or highlighted in extant texts. The paper will shed new light on an under-researched narrative tradition by providing a clearer understanding of the social world it constructs, and will provide a foundation for future detailed investigation of particular social formations by describing their place within the narrative's broader constructed social world.