Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society

Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Total Pages : 291
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789004206892
ISBN-13 : 9004206892
Rating : 4/5 (92 Downloads)

Synopsis Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society by : Jonathan S. Tanny

Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society is a study of the population dynamics, family structure, and legal status of publicly-controlled servile workers in Kassite Babylonia. It compares some of the demographic aspects proper to this group with other intensively studied past populations, such as Roman Egypt, Medieval Tuscany, and American slave plantations. It suggests that families, especially those headed by single mothers, acted as a counter measure against population reduction (flight and death) and as a means for the state to control this labor force. The work marks a step forward in the use of quantitative measures in conjunction with cuneiform sources to achieve a better understanding of the social and economic forces that affected ancient Near Eastern populations.

Children in the Ancient Near Eastern Household

Children in the Ancient Near Eastern Household
Author :
Publisher : Penn State Press
Total Pages : 393
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781575068954
ISBN-13 : 1575068958
Rating : 4/5 (54 Downloads)

Synopsis Children in the Ancient Near Eastern Household by : Kristine Garroway

Children were an important part of the ancient Near Eastern household. This idea seems straightforward, but it can be understood in many ways. On a basic level, children are necessary for the perpetuation of a household. On a deeper level, the definitions of child and member of the household are far from categorical. This book begins to explore the multiple definitions of child and the way the child fits within a household. It examines what membership in the household looks like for children and what factors contribute to it. A study addressing what a child is and how a child’s gender and social status affect her place in the household is vital to a proper understanding of the ancient Near Eastern household. Despite their importance, children have long been marginalized in discussions of ancient societies. Only recently has this trend begun to change within biblical and ancient Near Eastern scholarship. A recent wave of studies, especially in relation to the Hebrew Bible, has started to address children in their own right. In light of the current state of scholarship on children, the purpose of this book is threefold. First, Garroway continues to fill out the picture of the child in the ancient Near East by compiling child-centric texts and archaeological realia. In analyzing these materials, she surveys the relationship between children and ancient Near Eastern society by examining the extent to which structuring forces in a community, such as social status and gender, contribute to the process of a child’s becoming a member of his household and society. Finally, this information provides a base for future research, for example, a cross-cultural study of children in the ancient Near East in Classical Antiquity.

Society and the Individual in Ancient Mesopotamia

Society and the Individual in Ancient Mesopotamia
Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages : 322
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781501517655
ISBN-13 : 1501517651
Rating : 4/5 (55 Downloads)

Synopsis Society and the Individual in Ancient Mesopotamia by : Laura Culbertson

This book provides an overview of social life in ancient Mesopotamia, bringing together leading experts to survey key social domains of daily life as well as major non-dominant social groups. It serves as a point of entry to the current research in this field.

The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume III

The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume III
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 1001
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780190687601
ISBN-13 : 0190687606
Rating : 4/5 (01 Downloads)

Synopsis The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume III by : Karen Radner

"The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East offers a comprehensive and fully illustrated survey of the history of Egypt and Western Asia (Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Iran) in five volumes, from the emergence of complex states to the conquest of Alexander of Great. The authors represent a highly international mix of leading academics whose expertise brings alive the people, places and times of the remote past. The emphasis lies firmly on the political and social histories of the states and communities under investigation. The individual chapters present the key textual and material sources underpinning the historical reconstruction, giving special attention to the most recent archaeological finds and how they have impacted our interpretation. The first volume covers the long period from the mid-tenth millennium to the late third millennium BC and presents the history of the Near East in ten chapters "From the Beginnings to Old Kingdom Egypt and the Dynasty of Akkad". Key topics include the domestication of animals and plants, the first permanent settlements, the subjugation and appropriation of the natural environment, the emergence of complex states and belief systems, the invention of the earliest writing systems and the wide-ranging trade networks that linked diverse population groups across deserts, mountains and oceans"--

Sons and Descendants

Sons and Descendants
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Total Pages : 356
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789004189645
ISBN-13 : 9004189645
Rating : 4/5 (45 Downloads)

Synopsis Sons and Descendants by : John P. Nielsen

Sons and Descendants represents the first comprehensive study of Babylonian family names. Drawing primarily on evidence from legal documents from the early Neo-Babylonian period (747-626 B.C.), the book examines the presence of large, named kin groups at the major Babylonia cities, considering their origins and the important roles their members played as local elites in city governance and temple administration. The period of Neo-Assyrian ascendance over Babylonia marks the first for which there is adequate textual material to allow for a study of these groups, but their continued presence and prominence in Babylonia under the native Neo-Babylonian dynasty and the Persian Empire means that this work is an important contribution to Assyriological understanding of Neo-Babylonian society.

On Human Bondage

On Human Bondage
Author :
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages : 332
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781119162506
ISBN-13 : 1119162505
Rating : 4/5 (06 Downloads)

Synopsis On Human Bondage by : John Bodel

On Human Bondage—a critical reexamination of Orlando Patterson’s groundbreaking Slavery and Social Death—assesses how his theories have stood the test of time and applies them to new case studies. Discusses the novel ideas of social death and natal alienation, as Patterson first presented them 35 years ago and as they are understood today Brings together exciting new work by a group of esteemed historians of slavery, as well as a final chapter by Patterson himself that responds to and expands upon the other contributions Provides insights into slave societies around the world and across time, from classical Greece and Rome to modern Brazil and the Caribbean, and from Han China and pre-colonial South Asia to early modern Europe and the New World Delves into a wide range of topics, including the reformation of social identity after slavery, the new historicist approach to slavery, rituals of enslavement and servitude, questions of honor and dishonor, and symbolic imagery of slavery

Osiris, Volume 39

Osiris, Volume 39
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 418
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226835624
ISBN-13 : 0226835626
Rating : 4/5 (24 Downloads)

Synopsis Osiris, Volume 39 by : Jaipreet Virdi

Presents a powerful new vision of the history of science through the lens of disability studies. Disability has been a central—if unacknowledged—force in the history of science, as in the scientific disciplines. Across historical epistemology and laboratory research, disability has been “good to think with”: an object of investigation made to yield generalizable truths. Yet disability is rarely imagined to be the source of expertise, especially the kind of expertise that produces (rational, neutral, universal) scientific knowledge. This volume of Osiris places disability history and the history of science in conversation to foreground disability epistemologies, disabled scientists, and disability sciencing (engagement with scientific tools and processes). Looking beyond paradigms of medicalization and industrialization, the volume authors also examine knowledge production about disability from the ancient world to the present in fields ranging from mathematics to the social sciences, resulting in groundbreaking histories of taken-for-granted terms such as impairment, infirmity, epidemics, and shōgai. Some contributors trace the disabling impacts of scientific theories and practices in the contexts of war, factory labor, insurance, and colonialism; others excavate racial and settler ableism in the history of scientific facts, protocols, and collections; still others query the boundaries between scientific, lay, and disability expertise. Contending that disability alters method, authors bring new sources and interpretation techniques to the history of science, overturn familiar narratives, apply disability analyses to established terms and archives, and discuss accessibility issues for disabled historians. The resulting volume announces a disability history of science.

Middle Babylonian Texts in the Cornell Collections, Part II

Middle Babylonian Texts in the Cornell Collections, Part II
Author :
Publisher : Penn State Press
Total Pages : 481
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781646020836
ISBN-13 : 1646020839
Rating : 4/5 (36 Downloads)

Synopsis Middle Babylonian Texts in the Cornell Collections, Part II by : Elena Devecchi

This volume completes the publication of Middle Babylonian texts from the Rosen Collection that date to the Kassite period, a project that was initiated by Wilfred H. van Soldt with CUSAS 30 in 2015. In this book, Elena Devecchi provides full transliterations, translations, and extended commentaries of 338 previously unpublished cuneiform tablets from Kassite Babylonia (ca. 1475–1155 BCE). Most of the texts are dated to the reigns of Nazi-Maruttaš and Kadašman-Turgu, but the collection also includes one tablet dating to the reign of Burna-Buriaš II and a few documents from the reigns of Kadašman-Enlil II, Kudur-Enlil, and Šagarakti-Šuriaš, as well as some that are not dated. The tablets published here are largely administrative records dealing with the income, storage, and redistribution of agricultural products and byproducts, animal husbandry, and textile production, while legal documents and letters comprise a smaller portion of the collection. Evidence suggests that these documents originated from an administrative center that interacted closely with the provincial capital Nippur and must have been located in its vicinity. They thus expand significantly our previous knowledge of the Nippur region under Kassite rule, hitherto almost exclusively based on sources that came from Nippur itself, and provide substantial new data for the study of central aspects of society, economy, and administration that traditionally lie at the core of research about Kassite Babylonia.

The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean

The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages : 568
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780195188318
ISBN-13 : 0195188314
Rating : 4/5 (18 Downloads)

Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean by : Peter Fibiger Bang

Tracing the evolution of the state from its beginnings to the early Middle Ages, this comprehensive handbook focuses on key institutions and dynamics while providing accessible accounts of states and empires in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean.

Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia

Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 215
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780192849618
ISBN-13 : 0192849611
Rating : 4/5 (18 Downloads)

Synopsis Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia by : J. Nicholas Reid

Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia explores the earliest historical evidence related to imprisonment in the history of the world. While many historical investigations into prisons have revolved around the important question of punishment, this work moves beyond that more narrow approach to consider the multifunctional practices of detaining the body in ancient Iraq. It is the contention of this book that imprisonment arose out of the desire to control and detain the body in relation to labor. The practice of detainment for coercion became adaptable to a variety of circumstances and goals, which shaped the contexts and practices of imprisonment. With time, religious ideology was attached to imprisonment. In one literary text, a prisoner was refined like silver and given new birth in the prison. The misery of imprisonment gave rise to lament through which a criminal could be ritually purified and restored to a right relationship with their personal god. Beyond this literary perspective, this work reconstructs how imprisonment and religious ideology intersected with the judicial process and explores the evidence related to the reasons behind imprisonment, the treatment of prisoners, and the evidence related to the lengths of their stays.