9 research outputs found
The Semantics of Purity in the Ancient Near East: Lexical Meaning as a Projection of Embodied Experience
This article analyzes the primary terms for purity in Biblical Hebrew, Ugaritic, Sumerian, Akkadian and Hittite. Building on insights from cognitive linguistics and embodiment theory, this study develops the premise that semantic structure â even of seemingly abstract conceptsâ is grounded in real-world bodily experience. An examination of purity terms reveals that all of them can be related to a concrete sense pertaining to radiance (brilliance, brightness, shininess). The article traces the semantic development of purity terms in distinct experiential contexts and shows how semantic analysis can elucidate the inner logic of fundamental religious concepts
The Defilement of Dina: Uncontrolled Passions, Textual Violence, and the Search for Moral Foundationsâ©
The story of Dinahâs violation in Genesis 34 has elicited radically different evaluations among exegetes. The present article attributes these divergent readings to the existence of distinct voices or moral positions in the text, particularly in relation to the issue of intermarriage. Beginning with a synchronic literary and ideological analysis of the narrative, the present reading will examine whether the multi-vocal state of the text should be best understood as an expression of ambivalence, redactional history or otherwise. A key tool in this analysis is the Moral Foundations Theory developed by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues. This theory can help shed light on the ideological tendencies and rhetorical techniques reflected in this text, particularly the significance of the repeated references to the defilement of Dinah. This synchronic reading will also suggest the basis for a diachronic analysis of the story, demonstrating how narrative features of the final form of the text offer clues to the scribal tendencies involved in editing it. Finally, these literary, historical and psychological dimensions are integrated to better contextualize the paradoxical relationship between defilement and ethnicity in the story
Contagion and Cognition: Bodily Experience and the Conceptualization of Pollution (áčumâah) in the Hebrew Bible
In this study, I apply embodiment theory as a framework for reconstructing the origins of the Israelite notion of pollution (áčumâah). Despite the fact that the Hebrew Bible describes a diverse array of sources of pollution â including bodily conditions, moral offenses and foreign cult practices, most modern studies attempt to find a single organizing principle which is âsymbolizedâ by the notion of pollution, whether it may be death, disorder, or some other abstract referent. In contrast with these attempts to explain away the heterogeneity of the biblical sources of pollution, the present study argues that the category of pollution is based on several distinct schemas that are modeled after bodily experience, including uncleanness and infection. These distinct models can be differentiated by the means of transmission and processes of purification associated with them.
This approach is tested through comparison with ancient Near Eastern and ethnographic evidence as well as through modern psychological research into notions of contagion. This comparative examination provides a basis for a more accurate appraisal of the historical context of ancient Israelite notions of pollution. This inquiry also clarifies the relationship between âritual purityâ and hygiene. Despite the obvious similarity between these two types of behavioral motivation, the understanding of the relationship between them is frequently obscured by anachronistic and simplistic assumptions which ignore the less differentiated perception of contagion that existed in the pre-modern worl
The Textualization of Priestly Ritual in Light of Hittite Sources
This paper evaluates the recent upsurge of interest in the scribal processes underlying the composition of Hittite ritual texts and the implications of this evidence for understanding the textual history of biblical rituals
Disgust, Disease and Defilement: The Experiential Basis for Akkadian and Hittite Terms for Pollution
This article challenges the common tendency in modern research to treat impurity
as a religious phenomenon divorced from mundane concerns. Employing the
cross-cultural psychological notion of âcontagion,â this investigation examines
the usage of terms for pollution and purity in Hittite and Akkadian as they relate
to distinct domains of human experience, specifically uncleanness, infection, and
transgression. Special attention is given to the use of these terms in reference to
infectious disease. This analysis demonstrates the real-world experiential basis for
notions of impurity and also provides a new perspective to shed light on the peculiarities
of each culture (e.g., the absence of an Akkadian term for âpollutionâ).
The article concludes with a detailed excursus on the etymology of Akkadian
musukku and its relation to Sumerian (m)uzug