The fifth to the ninth centuries were a formative period around the Mediterranean, in which new forces were redefining traditional social divisions. This volume will look at these centuries through the lens of inclusion and exclusion as social forces at work on the self, the community, and society as a whole. For late antique and early medieval societies, inclusion and exclusion were the means of redrawing the boundaries of cultural and political discourse, and ultimately, of deciding how resources--material, spiritual, and intellectual--were allocated. This is the first of two volumes to explore inclusion and exclusion as processes affecting Mediterranean communities. Contributions to the present volume look at how distinctions were fostered through both space and text, along ethnic and religious lines, and at the level of both ecumenical councils and individual friendships. By examining a wide range of social and cultural phenomena, from historiography and political partisanship to private religious worship and the performance of the feast, the chapters of this volume illustrate the exceptional range of ways that late antique and early medieval people negotiated their place in a changing world, and brought a new one into being.