The Decline of Female Professionals—and the Rise of the Witch—in the Second and Early First Millennium bce

Buylaere, Greta Van

doi:10.1353/mrw.2019.0001

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The decline or complete absence of the goddess in these mythic or religious texts may offer clues about gendered, raced, and classed relations in their respective societies. Indeed, in both ancient and modern societies, men took over from women as the official healthcare professionals (Banks 1999; Van Buylaere 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…“[T]he constant parallelism between goddesses and women should alert us to the possibility of women’s contributions to the development of scholarly learning” (Frymer-Kensky 1992: 41). However, by the end of the second millennium, male gods have taken over many of the functions of the goddesses (Van Buylaere 2019: 50, 2020: 3). The hegemonic ascendancy of male gods over the goddesses was particularly evident in the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish , taught in practically every undergraduate and seminary bible class on the Hebrew Bible.…”

Section: Midwives In Mesopotamiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Midwives in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Israel: An Intersectional Investigation

Yee

2022

Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture

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Although we have some artifacts of birth equipment from archaeology, this study will argue that the knowledge we have about midwives in ancient Israel, Egypt, and Mesopotamia primarily comes to us from the hegemonic domain of ideologies, myths, ideas, and symbols. Texts about the goddesses of birth relate something about the social roles and practices of midwives in the human sphere. The decline or complete absence of the goddess in these mythic or religious texts may offer clues about gendered, raced, and classed relations among humans in their respective ancient societies. Moreover, midwives will continue to play symbolic and ideological roles in the textual arena of today’s modern world.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Midwives In Mesopotamiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Midwives in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Israel: An Intersectional Investigation

Yee

2022

Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture

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Burn the Witch! A Comparison between the Portrayal of Sorceress Babylon in Isaiah 47 and the Figure of the Witch in Maqlû

Damsma

2021

Vetus Testam.

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In chapter 47 of the Book of Isaiah the fall of Babylon is described in metaphorical language: the arrogant queen Babylon is condemned for having practiced witchcraft since her youth. The evil which she inflicted on her victims will befall herself, and her downfall will be swift and without warning. Her dire fate follows that of her fellow sorcerers, who have perished in fire and flames. This article compares the portrayal of Babylon and her demise in Isa 47 with the Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft series Maqlû and discusses the shared terminology and the striking similarity of themes, such as the indictment of the witch, the gender-stereotype, the reversal of fate, and the condemnation to death by burning. The thematic, and sometimes lexical, overlap may indicate that Deutero-Isaiah incorporated Mesopotamian ideas about (counter-)witchcraft in his own composition, being exposed to local magico-religious thought whilst maintaining a critical stance towards it.

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My Men Have Become Women, and My Women Men: Gender, Identity, and Cursing in Mesopotamia

Konstantopoulos

2020

Die Welt des Orients

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The following essay considers the ways in which masculinity and femininity can be seen as potentially fluid, rather than rigid, categories in the ancient Near East, and furthermore understood as part of shifting nexus of power and agency -or lack thereof . Specifically gendered insults exploited the fluidity of these categories by focusing in particular on the forced emasculation and feminization of men in the ancient Near East, and these insults were often used as binding threats in treaty texts . Such punishments, as they invariably were, had close associations with the goddess Ištar, who was often responsible for acting as the agent of such enforced change . While the majority of these situations moved one from a position of greater to lesser agency and power (and thus from the masculine to feminine category), the opposite was possible in the ancient Near East . In limited and specific circumstances, women could also gain, in part, some of the agency that was normally reserved for men, a status that could be reflected in the ways in which they were indicated and referred to in texts .

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The Decline of Female Professionals—and the Rise of the Witch—in the Second and Early First Millennium bce

Cited by 4 publications

References 13 publications

Midwives in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Israel: An Intersectional Investigation

Midwives in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Israel: An Intersectional Investigation

Burn the Witch! A Comparison between the Portrayal of Sorceress Babylon in Isaiah 47 and the Figure of the Witch in Maqlû

My Men Have Become Women, and My Women Men: Gender, Identity, and Cursing in Mesopotamia

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