The Mummy Under the Bed : Essays on Gender and Methodology in the Ancient Near East. / edited by Katrien De Graef, Agnés Garcia-Ventura, Anne Goddeeris and Beth Alpert Nakhai

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Graef, Katrien de, editor.

Garcia-Ventura, Agnès, editor.

Goddeeris, Anne, editor.

Nakhai, Beth Alpert, editor.

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Hebrew

Subjects (All):

Bronze age--Middle East.

Bronze age.

Mythology, Assyro-Babylonian.

Women--Mythology.

Women.

Bible and feminism.

Femininity in the Bible.

Goddesses, Phoenician.

Mythology, Phoenician.

Life cycle, Human--Religious aspects.

Life cycle, Human.

Women--Social networks.

Folklore--Middle East.

Folklore.

Middle East.

Physical Description:

455 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Münster, Germany Zaphon [2022]

Language Note:

Text primarily in English with some Hebrew text and translations

Summary:

The present volume contains 17 contributions devoted to various methodological approaches to gender studies within the broad field of Ancient Near Eastern studies, including ancient history, archaeology, art history, Assyriology, Phoenician-Punic studies, and biblical studies. This collection is the result of presentations, exchanges, and discussions that took place during the "Third Workshop on Gender, Methodology, and the Ancient Near East" (GeMANE). Scholars explored new methods for addressing gender-related topics by sharing ideas, research results, and ongoing projects. Their results were further elaborated and, together with new chapters, bundled into the present volume. Building on the previous workshops, GeMANE 3 has thereby created a platform to present, examine, and discuss innovative methodological and theoretical approaches to gender within the broad framework of Ancient Near Eastern studies. Over the last several decades, gender studies has claimed its rightful place within Ancient Near Eastern studies. After the initial and sorely needed retrieval of women's lives utilizing textual and archaeological sources, new methodological and theoretical approaches to gender and sexuality now complement descriptive studies. Going forward, GeMANE remains fully committed to opening up all possibilities inherent within (post-) feminist, masculinist, structural, queer, and related theories. Also fundamental are innovative (digital) methodologies for historical, art historical, archaeological, and philological subjects within Ancient Near Eastern studies. The content of this volume is structured in four thematic sections. The first section, "Reading Against the Grain," is devoted to studies in which dominant readings of both textual and archaeological sources are questioned and alternative, resistant readings are offered. The second section, "Cult and Cults," contains contributions on the role of women and feminine identity in cult, and on (en)gendered spaces in religion and mythology. The third section, "Ancient Beauties," includes chapters on divine fragrance, beautification practices, bodily adornment, and binary gender stereotypes. The fourth section, "Networks and Powers," contains contributions on the role of women and female networks in economy and society, and on the application of Social Network Analysis. But first and foremost, the introductory chapter is devoted to the memory of women in Ancient Near Eastern studies.

Contents:

Preface and acknowledgements. Some words with a mummy

Women talking about women : excavating the memory of women in Ancient Near Eastern studies / Agnès Garcia-Ventura

1. Reading against the grain

The Late Bronze Age in Syria : was it a dark age for women? / Frances Pinnock

The female gaze : the subjected body in Tablet 103 of Šumma ālu Omens 1-7 / Ann K. Guinan

In nomine matris et filii . . . The use of matronymics in the legal and economic documents from Sukkalmaḫ Susa / Katrien De Graef

2. Cult and cults

Women in cult in first millennium BCE Mesopotamia / Natalie Naomi May

Engendered cosmic regions in ancient Mesopotamian mythologies / Lorenzo Verderame

Of cities, mothers, and homes : a cognitive-stylistic approach to gendered space in the Hebrew Bible / Karolien Vermeulen

Vanishing point : new perspectivity on women in the Book of Exodus / Elizabeth B. Tracy

3. Ancient beauties

The aroma of majesty : gender and the Hebrew Bible's olfactory cultic theology / Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme

Performing beauty in Phoenician-Punic cultures : a gender perspective / Meritxell Ferrer, Mireia López-Bertran

Embodying the past : the case of the Goddess on Lion at Hasanlu / Letteria Grazia Fassari, Raffaella Frascarelli

Entangled at death : beads, gender, and life cycles during the Central Anatolian Early Neolithic ; Aşıklı Höyük as a case study / Sera Yelözer, Mihriban Özbaşaran

4. Networks and powers

Zinu, wife and manager in Old Babylonian Larsa / Baptiste Fiette

Grandmother's tablets : some reflections on female landowners in Nuzi / Brigitte Lion

Women and their weight : incorporating weighted edges in a network analysis of the central redistributive household of Nippur (eighteenth century BCE) / Anne Goddeeris

Women's property and social networks in Mesopotamia / Allison Thomason

Was it law? Gender relations and legal practice in the Ancient Near East / Ilan Peled.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9783963270888

3963270888

OCLC:

1341397221