History & Generalism: Perpetrating Humanities inside of Assyriology

This talk is really four talks in one – first as an introduction to the speaker’s recent work on different subjects. The presentation will include a study of didactic instructions from 3rd millennium Sumerian literature on “how to be a good citizen,” from a time when the state was still new; a look at the hidden economic function of slaves as credit instruments in 2nd millennium Babylonia; and a surprising transformation in concepts of distance in 1st millennium Assyria. But it is a fourth theme which frames the first three: a consideration of what it means to work as a generalist in disciplines and professions defined by specialization. What could critical, comparative, and speculative modes of generalist ancient-history work look like? What are the implications of generalism for specialization? Can we re-build a viable path towards a robust Humanities tradition in Ancient Near Eastern fields, and how? (And should we?)