ISAC Seminars – serie

Visar alla böcker i serien ISAC Seminars. Handla med fri frakt och snabb leverans.

15 produkter

Kategorier

15 produkter

Del 10 - ISAC Seminars
Household Studies in Complex Societies
(Micro) Archaeological and Textual Approaches
AvMiriam Muller
Häftad, Engelska, 2015
435 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The volume is the result of the Ninth Annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute PostDoc Seminar, held on March 16-17, 2013. Twenty scholars specialized in the Old and New World from all over Europe and the US came together to find new approaches in the study of households in complex societies. The papers in this volume present case studies from the Near East, Egypt and Nubia, the Classical World, and Mesoamerica, including three comparative responses from the perspective of the different disciplines. By combining the archaeology record, scientific data and written documents the papers examine and contextualize different approaches and techniques in uncovering household behavior from the material record and discuss their suitability for the respective region and site. Building on the methodological groundwork laid out in a number of recent publications on household archaeology the volume contributes to the methodological and theoretical discussion, expands on the topics of society, identity, and ethnicity in household studies and opens up new avenues of research such as the perception of space in this innovative field. At the same time the papers reveal problems and disparities with which household archaeology is still struggling. It is hoped that the variety of case studies presented in this volume will further inspire the interested reader to establish new research agendas and excavation strategies that contribute to the development of the field in the various regions covered in the different papers and beyond.
Del 11 - ISAC Seminars
Late Third Millennium in the Ancient Near East
Chronology, C14, and Climate Change
AvFelix Hoflmayer
Häftad, Engelska, 2017
207 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
During the late third millennium BC one of the biggest transformations of the ancient Near East took place, affecting almost all regions from Egypt to Anatolia and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Iranian plateau. This period not only saw the collapse of urbanization in the southern Levant at the end of the Early Bronze Age III and the following pastoral Intermediate Bronze, and the rise and decline of the Akkad empire in the Upper Euphrates region, but also the end of the Egyptian Old Kingdom in the Nile valley. In recent years it has been argued that climatic reasons, especially rapid climate change in the late third millennium BC (the so-called 4.2 ka BP event) might have triggered this supraregional collapse in western Asia and Egypt, linking it to a period of aridification and cooling. This volume compiles papers presented at the tenth annual Oriental Institute Postdoctoral Seminar, held on March 7-8, 2014. Three major topics are covered: The radiocarbon evidence for the mid to late third millennium BC Near East, the chronological implications of new dates and how historical/archaeological chronologies should/could be adapted, and - based on this evidence - if and how climate change can be related to transitions in the late Early Bronze Age. Furthermore, written sources concerning late Early Bronze Age Near Eastern interrelations and/or transformation and collapse from Egypt to Syria/Mesopotamia are taken into account.
Del 12 - ISAC Seminars
Structures of Power
Law and Gender Across the Ancient Near East and Beyond
AvIlan Peled
Häftad, Engelska, 2018
235 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
This volume publishes the proceedings of the eleventh annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar. Its central goal is to present a cross-cultural study of the intersection between law and gender relations in the ancient world, with a focus on the ancient Near East. When reflecting upon the formation, perpetuation, and interactions of social structures that frequently come into conflict with each other, one discovers that gender constructs are used by mechanisms of social monitoring and control; structures of power. One such example is the realm of jurisdiction and legislation. This volume uses the sphere of legal institutions as a prism through which to consider gender relations in the ancient world, both in the Near East and beyond. The way in which similar issues were manifested in different cultural and historical contexts is examined, with the goal of identifying common denominators as well as particularities. The three themes discussed in this volume are examined through multiple historical-cultural examples.
Del 13 - ISAC Seminars
Irrigation in Early States
New Directions
AvStephanie Rost
Häftad, Engelska, 2022
655 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The cross-cultural studies in this volume reexamine the role of irrigation in early states. Ranging geographically from South America and the southwestern United States to North Africa, the Middle East and Asia, they describe the physical attributes and environments of early irrigation systems; various methods for empirical investigation of ancient irrigation; and irrigation's economic, sociopolitical and cosmological dimensions. Through their interdisciplinary perspectives, the authors--all experts in the field of irrigation studies--advance both methodological and theoretical approaches to understanding irrigation in early civilizations. Irrigation has long been of interest in the study of the past. Many early civilizations were located in river valleys, and irrigation was of great economic importance for many early states because of the key role it played in producing an agricultural surplus, which was the main source of wealth and the basis of political power for the elites who controlled it. Agricultural surplus was also necessary to maintain the very features of statehood, such as urbanism, full-time labour specialization, state institutions and status hierarchy. Yet the presence of large-scale or complex irrigation systems does not necessarily mean that they were under centralised control. While some early states organised the construction, operation and maintenance of irrigation works and resolved conflicts related to water distribution, other early governments left most of the management to local farmers and controlled only the surplus.With colour illustrations
Del 14 - ISAC Seminars
Seen Not Heard
Composition, Iconicity, and the Classifier Systems of Logosyllabic Scripts
AvIlona Zsolnay
Häftad, Engelska, 2023
609 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
Traditionally, writing—a graphic, multidimensional form of communication—has been approached as a vehicle for representing, and therefore conveying, the spoken word. Moving beyond this manner of analysis, this volume interrogates writing as a medium that is not simply a handmaiden to oral and aural exchange but a communication system that is richly layered and experienced.To exploit this aspect of visual code, scholars from the fields of Egyptology, Sinology, Hittitology, and Assyriology, together with Mesoamericanists, art historians, and a sign language specialist, are brought together in this volume. In its pages, these contributors incorporate into their analyses methods more commonly used in linguistics and semiotics, communication studies, art historical analysis, and traditional philology to new ends to form original trajectories of inquiry. Each contribution either lays bare explicit exploitation of visuality in scribal production as a means to cementing power, reveal the mystical, induce humour or expose clandestine views, or locates implicit knowledge schemes and cultural maps underlying and informing these same productions. The pioneering investigations presented in Seen Not Heard reveal that although writing may be heard, the fact that it can also be seen affects its reception and therefore the meaning of any transported phonological units.
Del 16 - ISAC Seminars
Pomp, Circumstance, and the Performance of Politics
Acting Politically Correct in the Ancient World
AvKathryn R. Morgan
Häftad, Engelska, 2024
508 kr
Skickas
When we imagine ancient political life, we think of powerful rulers and awe-inspiring monuments, not grassroots movements. But if the cacophony of our modern political discourse can teach us anything, it is that negotiating power and legitimacy is an ongoing conversation, not a monologue. Pomp, Circumstance, and the Performance of Politics investigates moments and spaces in the pre-modern world where audiences had the opportunity to weigh in on the messages their leaders were sending. How did ordinary people experience and contribute to their political realities, and what strategies did rulers use to gain support? Bringing together scholars working in a wide variety of disciplines and time periods, from pre-hispanic Mesoamerica and Early Historic India to the Assyrian Empire and papal Rome, this book takes a bottom-up approach to evaluating the risks and rewards of acting "politically correct"—or incorrect—in the ancient world.
Del 15 - ISAC Seminars
Outward Appearance versus Inward Significance
Addressing Identities through Attire in the Ancient World
AvAleksandra Hallmann
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
563 kr
Skickas
This volume takes a multidisciplinary and comparative approach to dress studies in the ancient world. Spanning a wide geographic spectrum, from the Near East and North Africa to the Mediterranean world and the Americas, it explores the cultural, social, and political significance of attire. It engages the reader in a debate about the cross-culturally developed role of dress in construing and projecting various identities.Clothes are often considered mundane, yet they play a crucial role in people's lives beyond mere bodily protection. The meaning of a piece of clothing changes the moment it is worn, as it becomes associated with its wearer. Because attire can demonstrate affiliation with a particular religious, ethnic, or political group, it serves as an important means of constructing self-identity and plays a vital role in social acculturation and assimilation. To understand what clothing reveals about the ethnicity, beliefs, social rank, profession, gender, or age of the wearer, one must examine its sociocultural context and the nonverbal language it conveys.Essays by experts from a range of disciplines, including art history, anthropology, archaeology, classics, Near Eastern studies and conservation, approach the subject from different perspectives, apply varied methodologies, and draw on a diverse array of primary sources, including artifacts, iconography and texts, to offer a nuanced understanding of the clothed self in ancient societies. This book will be of interest not only to experts in dress studies but to everyone interested in the cultural anthropology of dress and fashion.
Del 1 - ISAC Seminars
Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam
Archaeological Perspectives
AvDonald Whitcomb
Häftad, Engelska, 2004
299 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
This volume addresses the topical interest in Islam, studying the process of its spread throughout the medieval world and the process of conversion to this religion and adoption of its cultural life. The evidence is presented in a series of essay reports on archaeological approaches in current Islamic Archaeology. These papers are the result of a seminar that attempted a comparative analysis of widely different regions and periods, based on archaeological monuments or artefacts, exploring processes of adaptation or adjustment to local cultural complexes. Islam may be seen as a religion, political system, and cultural complex, a trinity of inseparable aspects. The introduction of these variable characteristics of Islam, during initial contact and afterwards, resulted in changes in identity approached as a sort of "cognitive" archaeology. In each specific case, the author assesses the nature of the pre-Islamic regional tradition, the resulting plurality of cultures as a "multi-cultural" society, and finally a resultant normative condition as a regional or cosmopolitan culture. This exposure to unfamiliar subjects and archaeological perspectives offers a potential for more abstract, comparative modelling in future historical research.
Del 4 - ISAC Seminars
Religion and Power
Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond
AvNicole Brisch
Häftad, Engelska, 2008
381 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
This volume represents a collection of contributions presented during the Third Annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond, held at the Oriental Institute, February 23-24, 2007. The purpose of this conference was to examine more closely concepts of kingship in various regions of the world and in different time periods. The study of kingship goes back to the roots of fields such as anthropology and religious studies, as well as Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology. More recently, several conferences have been held on kingship, drawing on cross-cultural comparisons. Yet the question of the divinity of the king as god has never before been examined within the framework of a cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary conference. Some of the recent anthropological literature on kingship relegates this question of kings who deified themselves to the background or voices serious misgivings about the usefulness of the distinction between divine and sacred kings. Several contributors to this volume have pointed out the Western, Judeo-Christian background of our categories of the human and the divine. However, rather than abandoning the term divine kingship because of its loaded history it is more productive to examine the concept of divine kingship more closely from a new perspective in order to modify our understanding of this term and the phenomena associated with it.
Del 6 - ISAC Seminars
Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World
AvAmar Annus
Häftad, Engelska, 2010
426 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The concept of sign, a portent observed in the physical world, which indicates future events, is found in all ancient cultures, but was first developed in ancient Mesopotamian texts. This branch of Babylonian scientific knowledge extensively influenced other parts of the world, and similar texts written in Aramaic, Sanscrit, Sogdian, and other languages. The seminar will investigate how much do we know about the Babylonian theory and hermeneutics of omens, and the scope of their possible influences on other cultures and regions.
Del 7 - ISAC Seminars
Slaves and Households in the Near East
AvLaura Culbertson
Häftad, Engelska, 2011
381 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The seventh in the Oriental Institute Seminar Series, this volume contains papers that emerged from the seminar "Slaves and Households in the Near East" held at the Oriental Institute March 5-6, 2010. Despite widespread mention of enslaved people in historical records from the ancient, medieval and early modern Near East, scholars struggle to understand what defines this phenomenon in both particular contexts and in general. The purpose of the seminar was to seek new understandings of slavery through scholarly exchange and exploration of new approaches. In particular, contributors examined slavery in the context of households, an approach that allows scholars to expose different dimensions of the phenomenon beyond basic economic questions. Households, whether domestic units, temples or the building blocks of political organisations, can be used as the prism through which to view the dynamics among enslaved people and their immediate contacts. The volume contains micro-historical examinations of slavery in contexts spanning almost four millennia.
Del 8 - ISAC Seminars
Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond
AvNatalie N May
Häftad, Engelska, 2012
232 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The eighth in the Oriental Institute Seminar Series, this volume contains papers that emerged from the seminar Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond, held at the Oriental Institute April 8-9, 2011. The purpose of the conference was to analyze the cases of and reasons for mutilation of texts and images in Near Eastern antiquity. Destruction of images and texts has a universal character; it is inherent in various societies and periods of human history. Together with the mutilation of human beings, it was a widespread and highly significant phenomenon in the ancient Near East. However, the goals meant to be realized by this process differed from those aimed at in other cultures. For example, iconoclasm of the French and Russian revolutions, as well as the Post-Soviet iconoclasm, did not have any religious purposes. Moreover, modern comprehension of iconoclasm is strongly influenced by its conception during the Reformation. This volume explores iconoclasm and text destruction in ancient Near Eastern antiquity through examination of the anthropological, cultural, historical, and political aspects of these practices. Broad interdisciplinary comparison with similar phenomena in the other cultures and periods contribute to better understanding them.
Del 9 - ISAC Seminars
Heaven on Earth
Temples, Ritual, and Cosmic Symbolism in the Ancient World
AvDeena Ragavan
Häftad, Engelska, 2013
225 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The volume is the result of the eighth Annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar, held on March 2-3, 2012. Seventeen speakers, from both the US and abroad, examined the interconnections between temples, ritual, and cosmology from a variety of regional specializations and theoretical perspectives. The seminar revisited a classic topic, one with a long history among scholars of the ancient world: the cosmic symbolism of sacred architecture. Archaeologists, art historians, and philologists working not only in the ancient Near East, but also Mesoamerica, Greece, South Asia, and China, re-evaluated the significance of this topic across the ancient world.
Del 2 - ISAC Seminars
Margins of Writing, Origins of Cultures
New Approaches to Writing and Reading in the Ancient Near East. Papers from a Symposium held February 25-26, 2005
AvSeth Sanders,Sarite Sanders
Häftad, Engelska, 2006
417 kr
Tillfälligt slut
Who invented national literature? What is the relationship between script, identity, and history? Recorded history began in the ancient Near East, but we are just beginning to explore the powerful creative relationship between writing and the political identities of the Near East's cultures. This symposium was the first to bring leading philologists together with anthropologists and historians to connect theories of writing, language, and identity with the latest results of ancient Near Eastern scholarship.
Del 3 - ISAC Seminars
Performing Death
Social Analyses of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean
AvNicola Laneri
Häftad, Engelska, 2007
377 kr
Tillfälligt slut
This volume represents a collection of contributions presented by the authors during the Second Annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar "Performing Death: Social Analyses of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean," held at the Oriental Institute, February 17-18, 2006. The principal aim of the two-day seminar was to interpret the social relevance resulting from the enactment of funerary rituals within the broad-reaching Mediterranean basin from prehistoric periods to the Roman Age. Efforts were concentrated on creating a panel composed of scholars with diverse backgrounds - anthropologists, historians, archaeologists, art historians, and philologists - and the knowledge and expertise to enrich the discussion through the presentation of case-studies linked to both textual and archaeological evidence from the Mediterranean region. Fundamental to the successful realisation of this research process was the active dialogue between scholars of different backgrounds. These communicative exchanges provided the opportunity to integrate different approaches and interpretations concerning the role played by the performance of ancient funerary rituals within a given society and, as a result, helped in defining a coherent outcome towards the interpretation of ancient communities' behaviours.

ISAC Seminars – serie

Visar alla böcker i serien ISAC Seminars. Handla med fri frakt och snabb leverans.

15 produkter

Kategorier

15 produkter

Del 10 - ISAC Seminars
Household Studies in Complex Societies
(Micro) Archaeological and Textual Approaches
AvMiriam Muller
Häftad, Engelska, 2015
435 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The volume is the result of the Ninth Annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute PostDoc Seminar, held on March 16-17, 2013. Twenty scholars specialized in the Old and New World from all over Europe and the US came together to find new approaches in the study of households in complex societies. The papers in this volume present case studies from the Near East, Egypt and Nubia, the Classical World, and Mesoamerica, including three comparative responses from the perspective of the different disciplines. By combining the archaeology record, scientific data and written documents the papers examine and contextualize different approaches and techniques in uncovering household behavior from the material record and discuss their suitability for the respective region and site. Building on the methodological groundwork laid out in a number of recent publications on household archaeology the volume contributes to the methodological and theoretical discussion, expands on the topics of society, identity, and ethnicity in household studies and opens up new avenues of research such as the perception of space in this innovative field. At the same time the papers reveal problems and disparities with which household archaeology is still struggling. It is hoped that the variety of case studies presented in this volume will further inspire the interested reader to establish new research agendas and excavation strategies that contribute to the development of the field in the various regions covered in the different papers and beyond.
Del 11 - ISAC Seminars
Late Third Millennium in the Ancient Near East
Chronology, C14, and Climate Change
AvFelix Hoflmayer
Häftad, Engelska, 2017
207 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
During the late third millennium BC one of the biggest transformations of the ancient Near East took place, affecting almost all regions from Egypt to Anatolia and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Iranian plateau. This period not only saw the collapse of urbanization in the southern Levant at the end of the Early Bronze Age III and the following pastoral Intermediate Bronze, and the rise and decline of the Akkad empire in the Upper Euphrates region, but also the end of the Egyptian Old Kingdom in the Nile valley. In recent years it has been argued that climatic reasons, especially rapid climate change in the late third millennium BC (the so-called 4.2 ka BP event) might have triggered this supraregional collapse in western Asia and Egypt, linking it to a period of aridification and cooling. This volume compiles papers presented at the tenth annual Oriental Institute Postdoctoral Seminar, held on March 7-8, 2014. Three major topics are covered: The radiocarbon evidence for the mid to late third millennium BC Near East, the chronological implications of new dates and how historical/archaeological chronologies should/could be adapted, and - based on this evidence - if and how climate change can be related to transitions in the late Early Bronze Age. Furthermore, written sources concerning late Early Bronze Age Near Eastern interrelations and/or transformation and collapse from Egypt to Syria/Mesopotamia are taken into account.
Del 12 - ISAC Seminars
Structures of Power
Law and Gender Across the Ancient Near East and Beyond
AvIlan Peled
Häftad, Engelska, 2018
235 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
This volume publishes the proceedings of the eleventh annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar. Its central goal is to present a cross-cultural study of the intersection between law and gender relations in the ancient world, with a focus on the ancient Near East. When reflecting upon the formation, perpetuation, and interactions of social structures that frequently come into conflict with each other, one discovers that gender constructs are used by mechanisms of social monitoring and control; structures of power. One such example is the realm of jurisdiction and legislation. This volume uses the sphere of legal institutions as a prism through which to consider gender relations in the ancient world, both in the Near East and beyond. The way in which similar issues were manifested in different cultural and historical contexts is examined, with the goal of identifying common denominators as well as particularities. The three themes discussed in this volume are examined through multiple historical-cultural examples.
Del 13 - ISAC Seminars
Irrigation in Early States
New Directions
AvStephanie Rost
Häftad, Engelska, 2022
655 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The cross-cultural studies in this volume reexamine the role of irrigation in early states. Ranging geographically from South America and the southwestern United States to North Africa, the Middle East and Asia, they describe the physical attributes and environments of early irrigation systems; various methods for empirical investigation of ancient irrigation; and irrigation's economic, sociopolitical and cosmological dimensions. Through their interdisciplinary perspectives, the authors--all experts in the field of irrigation studies--advance both methodological and theoretical approaches to understanding irrigation in early civilizations. Irrigation has long been of interest in the study of the past. Many early civilizations were located in river valleys, and irrigation was of great economic importance for many early states because of the key role it played in producing an agricultural surplus, which was the main source of wealth and the basis of political power for the elites who controlled it. Agricultural surplus was also necessary to maintain the very features of statehood, such as urbanism, full-time labour specialization, state institutions and status hierarchy. Yet the presence of large-scale or complex irrigation systems does not necessarily mean that they were under centralised control. While some early states organised the construction, operation and maintenance of irrigation works and resolved conflicts related to water distribution, other early governments left most of the management to local farmers and controlled only the surplus.With colour illustrations
Del 14 - ISAC Seminars
Seen Not Heard
Composition, Iconicity, and the Classifier Systems of Logosyllabic Scripts
AvIlona Zsolnay
Häftad, Engelska, 2023
609 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
Traditionally, writing—a graphic, multidimensional form of communication—has been approached as a vehicle for representing, and therefore conveying, the spoken word. Moving beyond this manner of analysis, this volume interrogates writing as a medium that is not simply a handmaiden to oral and aural exchange but a communication system that is richly layered and experienced.To exploit this aspect of visual code, scholars from the fields of Egyptology, Sinology, Hittitology, and Assyriology, together with Mesoamericanists, art historians, and a sign language specialist, are brought together in this volume. In its pages, these contributors incorporate into their analyses methods more commonly used in linguistics and semiotics, communication studies, art historical analysis, and traditional philology to new ends to form original trajectories of inquiry. Each contribution either lays bare explicit exploitation of visuality in scribal production as a means to cementing power, reveal the mystical, induce humour or expose clandestine views, or locates implicit knowledge schemes and cultural maps underlying and informing these same productions. The pioneering investigations presented in Seen Not Heard reveal that although writing may be heard, the fact that it can also be seen affects its reception and therefore the meaning of any transported phonological units.
Del 16 - ISAC Seminars
Pomp, Circumstance, and the Performance of Politics
Acting Politically Correct in the Ancient World
AvKathryn R. Morgan
Häftad, Engelska, 2024
508 kr
Skickas
When we imagine ancient political life, we think of powerful rulers and awe-inspiring monuments, not grassroots movements. But if the cacophony of our modern political discourse can teach us anything, it is that negotiating power and legitimacy is an ongoing conversation, not a monologue. Pomp, Circumstance, and the Performance of Politics investigates moments and spaces in the pre-modern world where audiences had the opportunity to weigh in on the messages their leaders were sending. How did ordinary people experience and contribute to their political realities, and what strategies did rulers use to gain support? Bringing together scholars working in a wide variety of disciplines and time periods, from pre-hispanic Mesoamerica and Early Historic India to the Assyrian Empire and papal Rome, this book takes a bottom-up approach to evaluating the risks and rewards of acting "politically correct"—or incorrect—in the ancient world.
Del 15 - ISAC Seminars
Outward Appearance versus Inward Significance
Addressing Identities through Attire in the Ancient World
AvAleksandra Hallmann
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
563 kr
Skickas
This volume takes a multidisciplinary and comparative approach to dress studies in the ancient world. Spanning a wide geographic spectrum, from the Near East and North Africa to the Mediterranean world and the Americas, it explores the cultural, social, and political significance of attire. It engages the reader in a debate about the cross-culturally developed role of dress in construing and projecting various identities.Clothes are often considered mundane, yet they play a crucial role in people's lives beyond mere bodily protection. The meaning of a piece of clothing changes the moment it is worn, as it becomes associated with its wearer. Because attire can demonstrate affiliation with a particular religious, ethnic, or political group, it serves as an important means of constructing self-identity and plays a vital role in social acculturation and assimilation. To understand what clothing reveals about the ethnicity, beliefs, social rank, profession, gender, or age of the wearer, one must examine its sociocultural context and the nonverbal language it conveys.Essays by experts from a range of disciplines, including art history, anthropology, archaeology, classics, Near Eastern studies and conservation, approach the subject from different perspectives, apply varied methodologies, and draw on a diverse array of primary sources, including artifacts, iconography and texts, to offer a nuanced understanding of the clothed self in ancient societies. This book will be of interest not only to experts in dress studies but to everyone interested in the cultural anthropology of dress and fashion.
Del 1 - ISAC Seminars
Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam
Archaeological Perspectives
AvDonald Whitcomb
Häftad, Engelska, 2004
299 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
This volume addresses the topical interest in Islam, studying the process of its spread throughout the medieval world and the process of conversion to this religion and adoption of its cultural life. The evidence is presented in a series of essay reports on archaeological approaches in current Islamic Archaeology. These papers are the result of a seminar that attempted a comparative analysis of widely different regions and periods, based on archaeological monuments or artefacts, exploring processes of adaptation or adjustment to local cultural complexes. Islam may be seen as a religion, political system, and cultural complex, a trinity of inseparable aspects. The introduction of these variable characteristics of Islam, during initial contact and afterwards, resulted in changes in identity approached as a sort of "cognitive" archaeology. In each specific case, the author assesses the nature of the pre-Islamic regional tradition, the resulting plurality of cultures as a "multi-cultural" society, and finally a resultant normative condition as a regional or cosmopolitan culture. This exposure to unfamiliar subjects and archaeological perspectives offers a potential for more abstract, comparative modelling in future historical research.
Del 4 - ISAC Seminars
Religion and Power
Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond
AvNicole Brisch
Häftad, Engelska, 2008
381 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
This volume represents a collection of contributions presented during the Third Annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond, held at the Oriental Institute, February 23-24, 2007. The purpose of this conference was to examine more closely concepts of kingship in various regions of the world and in different time periods. The study of kingship goes back to the roots of fields such as anthropology and religious studies, as well as Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology. More recently, several conferences have been held on kingship, drawing on cross-cultural comparisons. Yet the question of the divinity of the king as god has never before been examined within the framework of a cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary conference. Some of the recent anthropological literature on kingship relegates this question of kings who deified themselves to the background or voices serious misgivings about the usefulness of the distinction between divine and sacred kings. Several contributors to this volume have pointed out the Western, Judeo-Christian background of our categories of the human and the divine. However, rather than abandoning the term divine kingship because of its loaded history it is more productive to examine the concept of divine kingship more closely from a new perspective in order to modify our understanding of this term and the phenomena associated with it.
Del 6 - ISAC Seminars
Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World
AvAmar Annus
Häftad, Engelska, 2010
426 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The concept of sign, a portent observed in the physical world, which indicates future events, is found in all ancient cultures, but was first developed in ancient Mesopotamian texts. This branch of Babylonian scientific knowledge extensively influenced other parts of the world, and similar texts written in Aramaic, Sanscrit, Sogdian, and other languages. The seminar will investigate how much do we know about the Babylonian theory and hermeneutics of omens, and the scope of their possible influences on other cultures and regions.
Del 7 - ISAC Seminars
Slaves and Households in the Near East
AvLaura Culbertson
Häftad, Engelska, 2011
381 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The seventh in the Oriental Institute Seminar Series, this volume contains papers that emerged from the seminar "Slaves and Households in the Near East" held at the Oriental Institute March 5-6, 2010. Despite widespread mention of enslaved people in historical records from the ancient, medieval and early modern Near East, scholars struggle to understand what defines this phenomenon in both particular contexts and in general. The purpose of the seminar was to seek new understandings of slavery through scholarly exchange and exploration of new approaches. In particular, contributors examined slavery in the context of households, an approach that allows scholars to expose different dimensions of the phenomenon beyond basic economic questions. Households, whether domestic units, temples or the building blocks of political organisations, can be used as the prism through which to view the dynamics among enslaved people and their immediate contacts. The volume contains micro-historical examinations of slavery in contexts spanning almost four millennia.
Del 8 - ISAC Seminars
Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond
AvNatalie N May
Häftad, Engelska, 2012
232 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The eighth in the Oriental Institute Seminar Series, this volume contains papers that emerged from the seminar Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond, held at the Oriental Institute April 8-9, 2011. The purpose of the conference was to analyze the cases of and reasons for mutilation of texts and images in Near Eastern antiquity. Destruction of images and texts has a universal character; it is inherent in various societies and periods of human history. Together with the mutilation of human beings, it was a widespread and highly significant phenomenon in the ancient Near East. However, the goals meant to be realized by this process differed from those aimed at in other cultures. For example, iconoclasm of the French and Russian revolutions, as well as the Post-Soviet iconoclasm, did not have any religious purposes. Moreover, modern comprehension of iconoclasm is strongly influenced by its conception during the Reformation. This volume explores iconoclasm and text destruction in ancient Near Eastern antiquity through examination of the anthropological, cultural, historical, and political aspects of these practices. Broad interdisciplinary comparison with similar phenomena in the other cultures and periods contribute to better understanding them.
Del 9 - ISAC Seminars
Heaven on Earth
Temples, Ritual, and Cosmic Symbolism in the Ancient World
AvDeena Ragavan
Häftad, Engelska, 2013
225 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The volume is the result of the eighth Annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar, held on March 2-3, 2012. Seventeen speakers, from both the US and abroad, examined the interconnections between temples, ritual, and cosmology from a variety of regional specializations and theoretical perspectives. The seminar revisited a classic topic, one with a long history among scholars of the ancient world: the cosmic symbolism of sacred architecture. Archaeologists, art historians, and philologists working not only in the ancient Near East, but also Mesoamerica, Greece, South Asia, and China, re-evaluated the significance of this topic across the ancient world.
Del 2 - ISAC Seminars
Margins of Writing, Origins of Cultures
New Approaches to Writing and Reading in the Ancient Near East. Papers from a Symposium held February 25-26, 2005
AvSeth Sanders,Sarite Sanders
Häftad, Engelska, 2006
417 kr
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Who invented national literature? What is the relationship between script, identity, and history? Recorded history began in the ancient Near East, but we are just beginning to explore the powerful creative relationship between writing and the political identities of the Near East's cultures. This symposium was the first to bring leading philologists together with anthropologists and historians to connect theories of writing, language, and identity with the latest results of ancient Near Eastern scholarship.
Del 3 - ISAC Seminars
Performing Death
Social Analyses of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean
AvNicola Laneri
Häftad, Engelska, 2007
377 kr
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This volume represents a collection of contributions presented by the authors during the Second Annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar "Performing Death: Social Analyses of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean," held at the Oriental Institute, February 17-18, 2006. The principal aim of the two-day seminar was to interpret the social relevance resulting from the enactment of funerary rituals within the broad-reaching Mediterranean basin from prehistoric periods to the Roman Age. Efforts were concentrated on creating a panel composed of scholars with diverse backgrounds - anthropologists, historians, archaeologists, art historians, and philologists - and the knowledge and expertise to enrich the discussion through the presentation of case-studies linked to both textual and archaeological evidence from the Mediterranean region. Fundamental to the successful realisation of this research process was the active dialogue between scholars of different backgrounds. These communicative exchanges provided the opportunity to integrate different approaches and interpretations concerning the role played by the performance of ancient funerary rituals within a given society and, as a result, helped in defining a coherent outcome towards the interpretation of ancient communities' behaviours.

ISAC Seminars – serie

Household Studies in Complex Societies

Late Third Millennium in the Ancient Near East

Structures of Power

Irrigation in Early States

Seen Not Heard

Pomp, Circumstance, and the Performance of Politics

Outward Appearance versus Inward Significance

Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam

Religion and Power

Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World

Slaves and Households in the Near East

Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond

Heaven on Earth

Margins of Writing, Origins of Cultures

Performing Death

ISAC Seminars – serie

Household Studies in Complex Societies

Late Third Millennium in the Ancient Near East

Structures of Power

Irrigation in Early States

Seen Not Heard

Pomp, Circumstance, and the Performance of Politics

Outward Appearance versus Inward Significance

Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam

Religion and Power

Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World

Slaves and Households in the Near East

Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond

Heaven on Earth

Margins of Writing, Origins of Cultures

Performing Death

ISAC Seminars – serie

Household Studies in Complex Societies

Late Third Millennium in the Ancient Near East

Structures of Power

Irrigation in Early States

Seen Not Heard

Pomp, Circumstance, and the Performance of Politics

Outward Appearance versus Inward Significance

Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam

Religion and Power

Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World

Slaves and Households in the Near East

Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond

Heaven on Earth

Margins of Writing, Origins of Cultures

Performing Death

ISAC Seminars – serie

Household Studies in Complex Societies

Late Third Millennium in the Ancient Near East

Structures of Power

Irrigation in Early States

Seen Not Heard

Pomp, Circumstance, and the Performance of Politics

Outward Appearance versus Inward Significance

Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam

Religion and Power

Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World

Slaves and Households in the Near East

Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond

Heaven on Earth

Margins of Writing, Origins of Cultures

Performing Death