THE MELAMMU PROJECT http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/ ÐThe Other and the Enemy in the Mesopotamian Conception of the WorldÑ BEATE PONGRATZ-LEISTEN Published in Melammu Symposia 2: R. M. Whiting (ed.), Mythology and Mythologies. Methodological Approaches to Intercultural Influences. Proceedings of the Second Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project. Held in Paris, France, October 4-7, 1999 (Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project 2001), pp. 195-231. Publisher: http://www.helsinki.fi/science/saa/ This article was downloaded from the website of the Melammu Project: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/ The Melammu Project investigates the continuity, transformation and diffusion of Mesopotamian culture throughout the ancient world. A central objective of the project is to create an electronic database collecting the relevant textual, art-historical, archaeological, ethnographic and linguistic evidence, which is available on the website, alongside bibliographies of relevant themes. In addition, the project organizes symposia focusing on different aspects of cultural continuity and evolution in the ancient world. The Digital Library available at the website of the Melammu Project contains articles from the Melammu Symposia volumes, as well as related essays. All downloads at this website are freely available for personal, non-commercial use. Commercial use is strictly prohibited. For inquiries, please contact [email protected]. PONGRATZ- LEISTEN T HE O THER AND THE ENEMY BEATE P ONGRATZ -L EISTEN Tübingen The Other and the Enemy in the Mesopotamian Conception of the World * 1. Introduction ith the development of cultural tianity he lacks, the clothes he does not identity, civilizations always not wear, the gold he doesn’t want, the iron he only generate concepts of other- doesn’t have, the written alphabet he W 2 ness and foreignness but also cultural tech- doesn’t use.” Thus, the thought-process niques to cope with the encounter of the standing behind constructing the image of other. One of these cultural techniques is the Other is to be characterized as a “syste- the construction of a specific conception of matic thought-process of inversion.” 3 the world which allocates a well-defined A similar process can be observed in the position to the other, the foreigner and the literary sources of Mesopotamia where over enemy. the millennia a very differentiated system Throughout human history the vision of of alterity has been developped embracing the “Other” as an opponent entity to which the antagonisms of a negative value is attached has a long tradi- tion. One has to be aware that the “objec- 1) city vs. countryside 2) sedentarism vs. nomadism tive” scholarly look at the Other which de- 3) homeland vs. enemy. veloped into the discipline of ethnography is an invention of the nineteenth century. While in the Old Babylonian period dif- Before, colonial explorers, missionaries, ferent text genres still clearly distinguish and cosmographers described the manners between these concepts, with the develop- and customs of foreign people in depend- ment of the ideological system of the ence on their Christian conception of the Middle Assyrian kings at the latest, they world, i.e., they were “not experienced as intermingle in order to formulate the con- being instances … of different cultures” but cept of the inner and the outer world. rather as “being manifestations of barbar- Albeit C. Zaccagnini introduced the term ism and savage degeneracy – a hybrid com- of ethnography in view of the representa- posite of Christian ‘nature’ and Christian tion of the enemy in Neo-Assyrian ideol- ‘evil.’” 1 As B. McGrane has put forward, in ogy 4 I would prefer to restrict this term to the conception of the world of the sixteenth observations such as the remarks in the an- century “the Other is related to the Chris- nals of Sennacherib referring to the dress- * I would like to express my gratitude for helpful hints 3 Ibid. and critical comments from my colleagues, J.S. Cooper, 4 C. Zaccagnini, The Enemy in the Neo-Assyrian Royal M. Novák, and B. Gruendler. Inscriptions: the “Ethnographic” Description, in: H.-J. 1 B. McGrane, Beyond Anthropology. Society and the Nissen/J. Renger (eds.), Mesopotamien und seine Nach- Other (New York 1989) 17. barn, vol.2, 25th RAI Berlin (Berlin 1982) 409-24. 2 McGrane 1989, 10. R.M. Whiting (ed.) MELAMMU S YMPOSIA II (Helsinki 2000) ISBN 951-45-9049-X 195 PONGRATZ- LEISTEN T HE O THER AND THE ENEMY ing of the Elamite dignitaries also quoted by tends to diverge from historical facts. His- Zaccagnini: “… who wore a golden girdle- torical research has to be aware that this dagger, whose wrists are encircled with city-oriented language of power creates its rings (for attaching the?) slings of reddish own dimensions of meaning 9 and conceives gold, like fat steers to which nose-ropes are of “city life as inherently superior to life in attached” 5 or referring to the dressing of the the countryside” 10 and in the steppe. Babylonian dignitaries likewise quoted by It is very seldom only that a positive pic- Zaccagnini. 6 All the other remarks concern- ture is given of the regions outside the city ing the housing of the enemy – “mountains, as well as of the lifestyle connected with it. seas, marshes, desert” 7 – his way of life or It will be shown that the positive picture is his intelligence are all automatically quali- bound to certain text genres, and again to fied as the counterpart of Assyrian values. specific contexts within the narrative. The This perspective is not restricted to the As- focus of the present study will be on the syrian ideology but has a long tradition in conception of the world in Sumerian and Mesopotamia as will be shown in this study. Akkadian literary texts. The focus of research will lie on the concep- But first, some preliminary remarks shall tualization of the world in the literary pro- be given: duction of Mesopotamia, whereby historio- graphy 8 in the form of royal inscriptions 1) on the sociopolitical system of Mesopota- will be treated as a literary genre as well. mia and the position of marginalized groups; 2) on the methodological approach to myth- In Mesopotamia the literary conception ology used in this paper; and of social and political reality is written from 3) on cosmology and the conception of the the elite urban vantage point and very often world in Mesopotamia. 2. The sociopolitical system of Mesopotamia Mesopotamia belongs to those premodern fringe groups of a society are marginalized civilizations that can be defined as socio- by specific norms. political systems with various inherent These norms might be transgressed by a forms of alienage. 11 This political system different ethnicity or language, different re- involved not only the encounter with exter- ligious belief-systems, specific professions nal foreigners such as craftsmen and merce- which were considered dangerous for so- naries imported during war, but also with ciety, physical defects, criminal acts or a internal aliens. The latter represent the so- different lifestyle. 12 Concerning their for- cial phenomenon in which the so-called mation and evaluation, fringe groups are 5 OIP II, 45, v 85-88. Millennium B.C. (Guilford 1986) 129. 6 Zaccagnini 1982, 414. 10 G. M. Schwartz/S. E. Falconer, Rural Approaches to 7 Ibid., 413. Social Complexity, in: G.M. Schwartz/E. Falconer 8 Th. L. Thompson, Tradition and History: The Scholar- (eds.), Archaeological Views from the Countryside. Vil- ship of John Van Seters, in: S.L. McKenzie/Th. Römer lage Communities in Complex Societies (Washington/ (eds.), Rethinking the Foundations. Historiography in the London 1994) 1. Ancient World and the Bible, Essays … J. Van Seters, 11 M. Schuster, Einleitung, in: M. Schuster (ed.), Begeg- BZAW 294 (Berlin/New York 2000) 9-21. nung mit dem Fremden. Wertungen und Wirkungen in 9 P. Michalowski, Mental Maps and Ideology: Reflec- Hochkulturen vom Altertum bis zur Gegenwart, Collo- tions on Subartu, in: H. Weiss (ed.), The Origins of Cities quium Rauricum, vol. 4 (Stuttgart/Leipzig 1996) 3. in Dry-Farming Syria and Mesopotamia in the Third 12 H. Klengel, Soziale Differenzierung und Randgrup- 196 PONGRATZ- LEISTEN T HE O THER AND THE ENEMY not a fixed entity but are subject to histori- 17 As for me, if I keep myself inside just one cal change. day, By marginalizing certain groups a society 18 until I leave the city walls behind to renew my vigor, defines its own identity, which finds its 19 my vitality ebbs away. expression also in a specific conception of the world. In fact, it is very difficult to Generally, Old Testament narratives as assess the position of marginalized groups well as narratives from Mesopotamia itself in the conceptual world of Mesopotamian have certainly influenced the Assyriologi- society, because these groups enter written cal approach to the phenomenon of nomad- tradition for the most part only in moments ism in the Ancient Near East. Furthermore, of political or social crisis. the impact of Islamic historians should not This also applies to nomadic people who be disregarded. In the 14th century the so- will be the focus of the first part of this cial historian Ibn Hald un specifies the age- study. The letter exchanged between two old antagonism of urbanism and nomadism Yaminite leaders conveying the pastor- in the prolegomena ( muqaddimah ) to his alist’s disdainful view of sedentary life rep- universal history ( kit ab al- ‘Ibar ): 17 In the resents a unique document from the oppo- chapter entitled “Bedouins can gain control site perspective and, to my understanding, only over flat territory” he explains that should be interpreted especially within the “Flat territory, …, falls victim to their loot- context of praising the king as warrior, 13 ing and prey to their appetite whenever they just like the passage of the Erra-Myth, 14 also can gain power over it, when there is no quoted by P.