The Politics of Mesha

Segmented Identities and State Formation in Iron Age Moab

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9085437
AutoresBruce Routledge (0000-0002-6926-3728, autor correspondente)
Ano2000
Volume43
Fascículo3
Páginas221-256
Data de publicação2000-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0022-4995 • E-ISSN: 1568-5209
EditoraWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/156852000511295
OpenAlexW1989232065
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas17
Referências citadas26

The Mesha Inscription (ca. 850 B.C.) is the longest and most informative document from Iron Age Jordan. A close reading of this text shows that it is thematically and syntactically structured in terms of a series of territorially-based social units related to one another in a segmentary manner. This segmentary structure highlights the state-forming strategies of political incorporation pursued by Mesha, the inscription's putative author. It also highlights the limits of the recent characterization of biblical Moab as "tribal," with its assumption that kinship, rather than territory, was the principle organizing metaphor of the state

Archaeology · Art · Asian studies · China · Genealogy · Kinship · Linguistics · Literature · Metaphor · Political science · Politics · Reading (process) · Sociology · State (computer science) · Ancient Near East History · Anthropology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · History · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy