Miti, culti, saperi. Per un'antropologia religiosa della Mesopotamia antica

Abstract

The theoretical and methodological approaches of Cultural and Social Anthropology have long since become indispensable for the study of classical antiquity, so much so that we can speak of a Historical Anthropology of the Ancient World. On the contrary, the dialogue between historians and philologists on the one hand and anthropologists, on the other hand, has been less developed concerning the cultures of the ancient Near East. There are several reasons for this lack of dialogue, the most important of which is the fact that the multilingual cuneiform textual corpus is still largely unpublished and characterized by philological difficulties that make it inaccessible to non-specialists. This volume aims, therefore, to contribute to enriching the debate and discussion between anthropologists and scholars of the ancient Near East. It includes contributions that cover a broad chronological spectrum, from the 3rd to the 1st millennium BC, and concern the cultures of ancient Mesopotamia from both Sumerian and Akkadian sources. Among the analyzed topics are: the relationship between mythology and royal ideology and the capacity of words to act in the ritual context in the Sumerian world; the interconnection between the divine, human and natural worlds in Mesopotamian religious thought read in the light of the debate on Ecological Anthropology and the "ontological turn"; ritual as a means of communication between the human and extra-human worlds (ritual for the activation of the cult statue, offerings, and sacrifices); the nature of demons; the materiality of religious practices; the Near Eastern vision of the past and wisdom.