Ritual and Narrative: Texts in Performance in the Ancient Near East

Space is limited: RSVP required.

Open to the public.

Along with other media, culture is constituted and articulated also in cultural performances including ceremonies, festivals, theater, and games. Inspired by theater studies, in the eighties and nineties, interdisciplinary research of ethnology, anthropology, religious studies, and historical studies concerned with cultural performance of any kind promoted the performative turn by emphasizing the body and bodily action over the thought and mind. This move towards action, i.e. the doing of things, entailed a move away from the text. This workshop turns towards a more precise definition of ritual versus theater and performance and reintroduces the complex relationship between text and performance. It explores the various forms of ritual texts transmitted in ancient Near Eastern literature; the relationship between ritual text and ritual performance, i.e., whether and how far we are allowed to consider cuneiform ritual texts as scripts for the execution of ritual action; the role of narrative for ritual performance; and the combination of incantation, prayer, and action within the ritual complex.

Program

10:00am - Texts in Performance and Texts for Performance in the Ancient Near East
Beate Pongratz-Leisten (New York University, ISAW)

10:45am - Perspectives on Language, Languages and Ritual Textuality in Mesopotamia
Piotr Michalowski (University of Michigan)

11:45am - Coffee Break

12:15pm - Power and Participation in Town Festivals at Emar
Daniel Fleming (New York University)

1:15pm - Lunch Break

2.15pm - Language and Performance: Doing Things with Words in Sumerian Ritual Laments
Paul Delnero (Johns Hopkins University)

3.15pm - Coffee Break

3:45pm - Narrating a Divine Murder in Cult: A New Look at the lilissu Ritual
Uri Gabbay (Hebrew University)