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The Concept of Ethnicity in Early Antiquity by Nathanael Shelley

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The Concept of Ethnicity in Early Antiquity by Nathanael Shelley The Concept of Ethnicity in Early Antiquity: Ethno-symbolic Identities in Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, and Middle Babylonian Texts Nathanael Paul Shelley Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2016 © 2016 Nathanael Shelley All rights reserved Abstract The Concept of Ethnicity in Early Antiquity: Ethno-symbolic Identities in Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, and Middle Babylonian Texts Nathanael Paul Shelley The dissertation investigates the concept of ethnicity and race in three related cultures from the ancient Eastern Mediterranean by analyzing key ethnological terms, in their original languages and contexts, in order to determine their similarity to and difference from a modern anthropological definition of ethnicity. It employs an ethno-symbolic approach to social identity in order to evaluate the similarity and difference of terms for so-called "ethnic groups" in Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, and Middle Babylonian. The evaluation is carried out using a historical comparative approach, first in three individual case studies and then synthetically. The study attempts to provide a documentary foundation for the critical, theoretical use of ancient documents in social and identity research, and the results suggest that a named collective of people from the first millennium BCE or later could be an ethnic group in the modern sense of the term (an ethnie), but that such terminology is generally imprecise before 1000 BCE. Table of Contents List of Tables.......................................................................................................................................................iv List of Maps..........................................................................................................................................................v Acknowledgments...........................................................................................................................................vi Prefatory Notes Bibliographic Abbreviations: Primary Sources and Reference Works...................................ix Bible Abbreviations, Verses, and Chapters...................................................................................xi Standard Abbreviations......................................................................................................................xi Note on spelling and transliteration..............................................................................................xii Chapter One: Ethnicity Introduction..........................................................................................................................................................1 Ethnicity................................................................................................................................................................5 Ethnie: The concept of ethnicity.....................................................................................................................9 Ethnicity and Race..............................................................................................................................10 Ethnicity and Alterity........................................................................................................................14 Ethnicity and “Ethnicity”..................................................................................................................16 Studies of Ethnicity..........................................................................................................................................17 The Ethno-symbolic Approach........................................................................................................23 Ethnicity in the present study.......................................................................................................................28 Ethnonyms............................................................................................................................................29 Ancestor myths...................................................................................................................................30 Ethnic histories....................................................................................................................................31 Cultural elements................................................................................................................................32 Homeland..............................................................................................................................................32 Solidarity...............................................................................................................................................33 Chapter Two: The Concept of Ethnicity in Ancient Greek Texts Introduction........................................................................................................................................................36 From Ethnos to Ethnic......................................................................................................................................37 Historical Sketch...............................................................................................................................................40 Mycenaean Greece (c. 1600–1100 BCE).........................................................................................41 The Trojan War (??)............................................................................................................................43 The Dark Age (c. 1200–800 BCE)....................................................................................................44 The Dorian “Invasion” (c. 1000?– 900 BCE)..................................................................................44 The Archaic Period (c. 900–480 BCE).............................................................................................46 The Classical Period (c. 480 BCE–323 BCE).................................................................................47 Afterward: The Hellenistic Period and Beyond (c. 323–30+ BCE)..........................................49 i Prevalent Identities...........................................................................................................................................49 Kinship identities................................................................................................................................50 Place identities.....................................................................................................................................52 Introduction to the Sources............................................................................................................................54 Sources I: Ethnonyms......................................................................................................................................56 Sources II: Ethnic ancestor myths................................................................................................................65 Sources III: Ethnic histories...........................................................................................................................68 Sources IV: Ethnic cultural elements...........................................................................................................71 Sources V: Ethnic homelands........................................................................................................................76 Sources VI: Ethnic solidarities.......................................................................................................................78 Discussion...........................................................................................................................................................83 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................................85 Note on Greek “Race”........................................................................................................................86 Chapter Three: The Concept of Ethnicity in Biblical Hebrew Texts Introduction........................................................................................................................................................87 The Hebrew Bible and Identity......................................................................................................................88 Non-ethnic categorical identities..................................................................................................................92 Ethno-national.....................................................................................................................................92 Ethno-religious....................................................................................................................................96 Historical Sketch...............................................................................................................................................98 Pre-state Tribal Period (c. 1250–1000 BCE)................................................................................100 United Monarchy (c. 1000–930 BCE)...........................................................................................102 Divided
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