Buch, Französisch, Band Volume 274, 314 Seiten
Reihe: Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis
Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 11-12 avril 2012
Buch, Französisch, Band Volume 274, 314 Seiten
Reihe: Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis
ISBN: 978-3-7278-1771-7
Verlag: Peeters Publishers
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 archeological
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.
Tabou et transgressions jetzt bestellen!
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 archeological
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.
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