Anthropology in Assyriology: An Historiographical Overview from the Periphery

Abstract

The disciplines of Assyriology and Social Anthropology1 have actually not been good conversation partners during the twentieth century. If one may synthesize in broad terms the communications and exchanges between the two, one can say that up until the 1960s Assyriologists have made use of some ethnographic insights and notices from the Middle East mostly as a means of adding some dynamics to social reconstructions based on textual interpretations. Since the 1960s, more explicit and conscious deployments of Social Anthropology have appeared in Assyriology, notably with various studies by the “Rome School” (Mario Liverani, Carlo Zaccagnini, F. Mario Fales, among the main representatives). In its turn, Social Anthropology has traditionally looked at Assyriology for some historical examples of social evolutionary frameworks and political stages (the rise of social complexity, the state, class society, etc.), but in a rather superficial manner, without a true interdisciplinary drive. In this paper, besides offering some general insights on the historical relations of Assyriology and Social Anthropology, I would like to present a historiographical overview of recurrent approaches and themes, besides some thoughts on a few methodological and epistemological aspects from anthropological discussions and research that may certainly be relevant for Assyriological interpretation—and naturally, considering Assyriological interpretation as a form of historical interpretation...