Cultural Encounters in Near Eastern History. An Interdisciplinary Conference
Contact between different cultural, social, linguistic and political units or societies has occurred countless times throughout the history of the Near East. This conference has the aim of establishing meaningful analytical categories for a description and understanding of such situations by way of both theoretical discussions and the presentation of empirical material. The perpetual process whereby groups of individuals invent or redefine their social identity seems to be given an added impetus whenever cultures meet, when attitudes to non-group members (“the other”) tend to be brought sharply into focus.
The Center for Canon and Identity Formation (CIF) will be hosting a conference to discuss the general problem of how to describe, analyse, and understand cultural encounters in Near Eastern history (until c. AD 1000).
The conference is the fourth of five annual events to be organized by CIF under the University of Copenhagen Programme of Excellence. The first symposium had the title The Earliest Libraries: Library Tradition in the Ancient Near East from the Dawn of History until the Roman Era (Nov. 20-21, 2009), the second Problems of Canonicity and Identity Formation in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (May 26-28, 2010), and the third Literature and Identity Formation (May 20-21, 2011).
Invited speakers include Mogens Trolle Larsen (Assyriology), Willy Clarysse (Papyrology), Jessica Goldberg (Medieval history), Rachel Mairs (Archaeology), Piotr Michaelovski (Assyriology), Cornelius von Pilgrim (Archaeology), Jørgen Bæk Simonsen (Arabic studies), Günter Vittmann (Egyptology), and Irene Winter (Art history).
Conference Theme
Contact between different cultural, social, linguistic and political units or societies has occurred countless times throughout the history of the Near East. This conference has the aim of establishing meaningful analytical categories for a description and understanding of such situations by way of both theoretical discussions and the presentation of empirical material. The perpetual process whereby groups of individuals invent or redefine their social identity seems to be given an added impetus whenever cultures meet, when attitudes to non-group members (“the other”) tend to be brought sharply into focus.
The old paradigm of acculturation, according to which one culture imposes its traditions and norms on another, is clearly too simple to lead to a proper analysis of the complex interactions in concrete historical situations. Various other ideas have been suggested and discussed in primarily anthropologically oriented scholarship, e.g. the concept hybridity which emphasizes the creation of a new cultural configuration in the meeting between societies. In other words, both parties in such encounters receive and give and the result is a fusion of traditions.
Another model has been applied by Richard White in his study of the meeting between the French colonists in North America and the local Indians, where he describes the creation of a virtual space, "The Middle Ground", where the direct contact between the groups can take place under special rules and on the basis of mutual (mis)understandings of the two traditions. In the discipline of art history several interesting approaches have been developed, which we hope to pursue.
The historical situations in which such encounters take place can have different backgrounds and character. Colonization is one, where a group settles in land not their own and engages in contacts with the indigenous population. Trade and trading diasporas form another model, and outright conquest and the creation of empire stand at the other extreme. The encounters are often associated with conflict, prejudice, even open warfare, but in many instances they are managed in peaceful processes where slowly developing practices of interaction are invented and manipulated.
In order to illustrate the approach favored for this conference we shall briefly sketch two different historical situations which each throw light on aspects of the wider question. It should be stressed that these are examples of themes which will be taken up, and where speakers have already been found, but the conference will be concerned with Near Eastern history until around 1000 AD.
1) The Old Assyrian commercial colonies established during the first centuries of the second millennium BC in Anatolia is the first example. Assyrian merchants established themselves as colonists in or in close proximity to Anatolian towns, where they lived for generations. In terms of language, religion, and social and political patterns the Assyrians and the local Anatolians had entirely different traditions and structures. Over time their interaction led to deep changes in both societies.
2) The rich documentation from Egypt during the centuries when Islam was introduced to the country shows how the meeting between old, local traditions and the new religion manifested itself in concrete social acts involving the daily lives of ordinary people. Islamisation was a long drawn-out process, negotiated rather than imposed.
The organizers would like to point to some of the issues that should be taken up by the contributions to the conference.
The nature of the relevant material and the kind of attitudes that can be detected in the surviving material must be addressed. The sources may show the development of attitudes over time and inconsistencies in attitudes will be expressed in different contemporary sources. In official policy and ideology we may find ideas that are very different from the actual behavior or practice on the ground which is often more complex and pragmatic.
A "bottom-up" approach which will provide examples of actual behavior and also discuss the dichotomy between practice and ideology is encouraged by the organizers. The second essential aspect is a discussion of the daily practices that reflect the processes in question; these will be found in the activities in households, workshops, marketplaces, social fields and institutions for dispute processing, education, artistic production, civic administration and religious activities.
The organizers of the conference also encourage participants to explore the stories of individuals who found themselves in such situations: How did complex cultural backgrounds manifest themselves in daily life? When does an individual emphasise which aspects of his cultural heritage? Are there problems associated with having a mixed cultural background, and if so, what is the nature of these problems?
It is hoped for that these questions can be addressed in such a way that a discussion of the general problem of how to describe, analyse, understand cultural interaction will become possible. It goes without saying that in the modern European context these are matters of central importance and relevance, and our conference may offer ideas that will have a wider significance, reaching beyond the temporal and geographical limits set by us.
Practical information
The conference will take place at the Royal Academy of Sciences in downtown Copenhagen.
The format for each session will consist of a presentation (40 minutes) followed by a discussion (15 minutes).
The conference offers full funding for the speakers at the symposium, including flights and accommodation.
Further information can be obtained from http://cif.tors.ku.dk/
Organizers
Kim Ryholt, director (ryholt@hum.ku.dk)
Thomas Hertel, co-director (thertel@hum.ku.dk)