Contesting Labeled Identities

Ki-Eun Jang analyzes how identity labels were claimed, disclaimed, and reappropriated in the ancient Near Eastern literary milieu. By contrasting the modern genealogy of gentilics with ancient premises of identification, she demonstrates how these forms encode complex patterns of affiliation beyond ethnic models.

Ki-Eun Jang analyzes the processes through which identity labels were claimed, disclaimed, and reappropriated in the ancient Near Eastern literary milieu. Central to her inquiry is the grammatical category conventionally termed “gentilics”, whose modern genealogy stands in conflict with the ancient logics of identification that operated on different conceptual premises. The author argues that dominant ethnic and racial models – widely employed in biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies – impose assumptions that obscure their historical origins, theoretical limits, and methodological consequences. Engaging sociological and postcolonial critiques, particularly the Barthian paradigm of ethnic groups and boundaries, she traces the history of racial and ethnic thinking in the humanities and demonstrates its impact on the interpretation of ancient evidence. From a linguistic perspective, the author introduces the notion of relational adjectives to clarify the morphological, semantic, and ontological structures encoded in gentilics. This perspective illuminates logics of categorization that cannot be collapsed into modern ethnic typologies. Her analysis of labels such as “Philistine”, “Hebrew”, “Canaanite”, “Aramean”, and “Judean” in the Hebrew Bible and cognate literature reveals shifting mechanisms of belonging that shaped the social world of ancient scribes. Ki-Eun Jang thus shows how ancient evidence not only enriches historical reconstruction but also challenges dominant models of modern identity.

Chapter 1: Introduction
A. The Sociological Questions about Gentilics
B. The Scope and Outline of This Study
Chapter 2: Gentilics and Ethnicity in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies: A History of Ideas
A. Gentilics: What Has Been Discussed So Far?
B. Ethnicity: Between Analytical Concept and Native Concept
C. The Legacy (and Limits) of Fredrik Barth: The 1969 "Introduction" and Beyond
D. Congruence of and Distinction between "Race" and "Ethnic Group"
E. Conclusion
Chapter 3: The Grammar of Ancient Identification
A. Introduction: Gentilics as Relational Adjectives
B. The Description of Relational Adjectives in Current Linguistics
C. The Description of Gentilics in Semitic Philology
I. Arabic
II. Egyptian
III. Hebrew
IV. Phoenician and Other Northwest Semitic Languages of Iron Age Inscriptions
V. Aramaic
VI. Akkadian
VII. Ethiopic (Geʿez)
VIII. Ugaritic
D. Conclusion
Chapter 4: Identities in Flux: Manifestation in Practice
A. Introduction: Coping with Ancient Evidence
B. Overview of the Ancient Literary Milieu of Gentilic
C. The Problem of Classifying the Ekron Inscription: Philistine, Phoenician, Hebrew, or None of the Above?
I. Scholarly Debates on the Ekron Inscription and the Philistine Identity
II. A Re-examination of Linguistic Features
III. A Re-examination of Paleographic Features
IV. Conclusion
D. Saul's Israel, the "Hebrews," and Identity Politics in 1 Samuel 13-14
I. The Description of the Literary Context of 1 Samuel 13-14
II. The Problem of Identification in 1 Samuel 13:3 and 14:21
III. Saul's Israel and the "Hebrews"
IV. ʿibrum from Mari and the Early Representation of the "Hebrews"
V. The Philistine David and the "Hebrews" in 1 Samuel 29:3
VI. Conclusion
E. The Boundaries of Inclusion and Exclusion: Belonging to Multiple Identities and Becoming Internal Others
I. Biblical "Canaanite": Between Proper Name and Appellative
II. Being "Aramean" and "Judean" in the Book of Ezra and in the Elephantine Documents from Ancient Egypt
F. Conclusion
Chapter 5: Conclusion: Toward a Revamped Paradigm of Gentilics
A. Contributions of This Study and the Summary of Arguments
B. Implications and Future Directions

• By (author) Ki-Eun Jang