Tabou et transgressions
Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 11-12 avril 2012
Edited by J.-M. Durand Edited by M. Guichard Edited by T. Römer
This colloquium brought together biblical scholars, Assyriologists and scholars of Antiquity to discuss the question of taboo and its transgressions, from the perspective of their disciplines and through their particular corpus of texts: Bible, literary or archaeological evidences from Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and the Mamelouk period… On the one side, the contributions highlight the absence of a term that would be the equivalent of the word “taboo”, originally borrowed from the Polynesian languages by last century’s anthropologists. It appears however that several characteristics connected to this concept are recurring in the societies under scrutiny. Thus, several contributions indicated the importance of food prohibitions as identity markers. These “table manners”, such as the blood interdiction in ancient Israel, allow a group to establish its own boundaries from the inside, and to define its modes of belonging and recognition. It also happens that specific diets are used to describe a group from the outside. It can prove unjustified and caricatural, as is the case for the pork-less diet attributed to the Egyptians by Herodotus, or, on the contrary, reflect a socio-historic reality, like in the case of the Amorites, a nomadic tribe which ate desert truffles and raw meat. The identity function of diets is also highlighted in interethnic meetings, when minority groups, like the Jews in the Hellenistic periods, were forced to adapt their practice to avoid being excluded from the city’s circles of influence. Sexual intercourse is a domain where laws hold little sway and where taboos help to define limits. Thus, prostitution in Ancient Israel was discussed as well as the metaphorical use of prostitution in prophetic discourse. Other contributions also analyzed the problem of interethnic marriages that blur the boundaries of the community, and the possibility, in extreme situations, to defy fundamental prohibitions such as incest in order to preserve other group values.”Contact taboo” were also considered. They characterize exclusive places, like a sanctuary or the house of a high priestess, the entrance of which is limited solely to the initiated. Some objects, such as war spoils, or some people, like first-borns, receive a sacred character that necessitates that they be set aside from the group. Conversely, for them to be integrated, one is conditioned by the observance of a ritual or of postures that insure the protection of the remainder of the group. In order to understand prohibitions and various regulations, one needs to be aware of the economical and social context in which they develop as well as of the collective imaginary to which they refer. Thus Assyrians put into place a fundamental distinction between what is voluntary and involuntary. Taking into account involuntary mistakes allows explaining any type of trouble that is related to the behavior of the one affected by trouble. This sense of responsibility generates new prohibitions established by hemerology, which sets auspicious and inauspicious days. Knowing these days limits the risk for unconscious mistakes. For their part, the founding texts of Judaism at the Persian time express an ideal where law should be placed under the authority of the temple. The law of retaliation (lex talionis) and the penalties of mutilations it implies is here indicative more of an ideological construction than of a historical reality.
- Edited by J.-M. Durand
- Edited by M. Guichard
- Edited by T. Römer
Other Titles in this Series
Das Lob der Schöpfung
Die Entwicklung ägyptischer Sonnen- und Schöpfungshymnen nach dem Neuen Reich
Volume 219
Gottliche Korper – Gottliche Gefuhle
Was leisten anthropomorphe und anthropopathische Gotterkonzepte im Alten Orient und Alten Testament?
Volume 270
Oedipe et le Cherubin
Les sphinx levantins, cypriotes et grecs comme gardiens d'Immortalite
Volume 248
The Power of Images
The Poetics of Violence in Lamentations 2 and Ancient Near Eastern Art
Volume 297
Prophetisme et Alliance
Des Archives royales de Mari a la Bible hebraique. Mit einem Vorwort von Manfred Weippert. Recueil d'etudes edite par Stephan Lauber et Hans Ulrich Steymans
Volume 271
Le Decalogue et l’histoire du texte
Etudes des formes textuelles du Decalogue et leurs implications dans l'histoire du texte de l'Ancien Testament
Volume 207
Kultprostitution im Alten Testament?
Die Qedeschen der Hebraischen Bibel und das Motiv der Hurerei
Volume 221
Bilder als Quellen – Images as Sources
Studies on ancient Near Eastern artefacts and the Bible inspired by the work of Othmar Keel
Volume 6
Le peuple aux trois noms
Une histoire de l'ancien Israël à travers le prisme de ses ethnonymes
Volume 298
Représenter dieux et hommes dans le Proche-Orient ancien et dans la Bible
Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 5 et 6 mai 2015
Volume 287
Le jeune heros
Recherches sur la formation et la diffusion d'un theme litteraire au Proche-Orient ancien
Volume 250
Un carrefour dans l’histoire de la Bible
Du texte a la theologie au IIe siecle avant J.-C.
Volume 233
Alteste Textgeschichte der Konigsbucher
Die hebraische Vorlage der ursprunglichen Septuaginta als alteste Textform der Konigsbucher
Volume 199
Similar Books
Ḫattušaš utnē išḫameški
Hittite and Other Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Piotr Taracha on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
Telling Contexts
Archaeological and Textual Studies in Honor of Elizabeth Bloch-Smith and Mark S. Smith
Die Entwicklung erdbebensicherer Bautechniken in der Frühen und Mittleren Eisenzeit in Ostanatolien
Volume 11
Kultur – Kontakt – Kultur
Beiträge anlässlich der 66. Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Frankfurt/Main und Mainz, 25.–29. Juli 2022
Volume 35
Sprachwissenschaftliche und kulturhistorische Reflexionen
Festschrift zu Ehren von Jörg Klinger
Volume 31
A Numismatic History of Barikot
Catalogue and Analysis of the Coin Finds from the Excavations at Bir-koṭ-ghwaṇḍai (Barikot), Swat, Pakistan (1984-2022) Pakistan (1984-2022). With a contribution by Luca M. Olivieri
Volume 69
Alexander the Great and the Campaign of Gaugamela
New Research on Topography and Chronology. IAMNI 1 (Italian Archaeological Mission to Northern Iraq)
Volume 53
Ancient Egypt in 50 Discoveries
Highlights from the first century of the Egypt Exploration Society
Volume 8
Archaeological Discoveries at the Temple of Ramesses II in Abydos
Vol. 1: Magazines, Animal Burials, and Miscellanea
Archaeology of Eastern Anatolia II: From Prehistoric Times to the End of the Iron Ages
Proceedings of the 2nd Archaeology of Eastern Anatolia Colloquium, 23-25 April 2021, Online (Arkeolojihaber Youtube Channel)
Volume 43
Ash-sharq: Bulletin of the Ancient Near East No 9 1-2 2025
Archaeological, Historical and Societal Studies
Assyria and the West
A Fresh Look at the Unshakeable Pillars of Late Bronze and Iron Age Chronology in the Eastern Mediterranean World
Autocratic Rule in Antiquity
Proceedings of the 14th Melammu Workshop, Krakow, 46 October 2021
Volume 12
Bogazkoy Tablets in the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations (Bo 95-Bo 3993)
Anadolu Medeniyetleri Muzesinde Bulunan Bogazkoy Tabletleri (Bo 95-Bo 3993)
Volume 3
Bridging the Gap: Disciplines, Times, and Spaces in Dialogue – Volume 2
Sessions 3, 7 and 8 from the Conference Broadening Horizons 6 Held at the Freie Universität Berlin, 24–28 June 2019
Ceramic Finds in Context (Roman to Early Islamic Times)
Final Publications from the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project VII
Volume 13
Current Research in Egyptology 2024
Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Symposium, Jointly Organised by the University of Liverpool, Swansea University, University of Birmingham, University of Oxford, and University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2–6 September 2024