Pilgrimage and Household in the Ancient Near East
Cambridge University Press, 3/14/2011
EAN 9780521768511, ISBN10: 0521768519
Hardcover, 312 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2 cm
Language: English
In this book, Joy McCorriston examines the continuity of traditions over millennia in the Near East. Tracing the phenomenon of pilgrimage in pre-Islamic Arabia up through the development of the Hajj, she defines its essential characteristics and emphasizes the critical role that pilgrimage plays in enabling and developing socioeconomic transactions. Indeed, the social identities constructed through pilgrimage are key to understanding the long-term endurance of the phenomenon. In the second part of the book, McCorriston turns to the household, using cases of ancient households in Mesopotamian societies, both in the private and public spheres. Her conclusions tie together broader theoretical implications generated by the study of the two phenomena and offer a new paradigm for archaeological study, which has traditionally focused on transitions to the exclusion of continuity of traditions.
1. Introduction
2. Why pilgrimage?
3. Pilgrimage practice in Arabian antiquity
4. The cattle shrine at Kheshiya and the origins of pilgrimage societies
5. Household practice in Mesopotamian antiquity
6. Neolithic houses and the scales of social practice
7. Landscape as habitus and the tempo of social practice
8. Conclusions.