All Queries 10. Social Justice Sanctified, From Inanna and Nanshe to Nemesis
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Punishments
The first sanction was that of the blood-feud to punish a murderer of one’s family—that is, to remove the community’s murder-pollution. Religion and exile were thus linked (and hence the city of refuge found in biblical times).
Also sanctioned was the obligation to redeem the lands of a family member.
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Include for instance money: Weights and measures (as anticipated briefly in Measures, Rules, and Prices). And hence social oversight and punishment. And this had to be “higher” than the two parties directly involved. The solution was to involve not merely the community and its selected members, but also a specialized sacred estate.
This is of course hardly surprising in view of the fact that temples were civilization’s first corporate institutions, at least in the Bronze Age Near East. But these public corporate entities were only part of the interface between the deities and economic life.
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Here, I focus largely on Mesopotamian religion. The region’s two great contributions to civilization have been called writing and law. (Alphanumeric Notation and the Calendrical-Musical Kosmos has described writing.) The role of law was to reflect cosmic order, or more accurately, to create it on earth to encompass the increasingly complicated economic relations of commercial Mesopotamia, its trade and colonization, its debts and slavery, its trade, its weights and measures, and its public and private sectors.Specify Citation
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The section described and included on the Chapter 10 General Queries page, Road Map to Understanding This Chapter, was originally placed in the Chapter 10 body here. Can you help us flesh out the contents in that query and determine where if anywhere to place that section inside Chapter 10?Omitted Text
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There was a note here we omitted; can you help us flesh it out and work it back into the chapter text?
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- Obligations = shoulds.
- Punishments = “shoulds” = fines.
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The etymology for some important Indo-European “credit” terminology points to a derivation from the religious sphere. Our word “credit” derives from Latin “credo,” “I believe.” Specifically, modern creditors believe that the debtor will repay the loan. However, the first belief in a quid pro quo relationship apparently was grounded in the sacred sphere: According to Benveniste[1] (1973: pp. 138–144), Sanskrit “śrāddha” (“belief, trust,” an offering at a shrine) implies an “act of confidence (in a god), implying restitution (in the form of a divine favor according to the faithful.” Only later were the ideas of “belief” and “trust” extended into the commercial sphere. Indeed, they were what helped establish this dimension of social relations. Brown[2] (1947: p. 26, speaking of Homeric Greek society) rightly remarked that “political institutions at this rudimentary stage needed the support of religious sanctions, and were organized as religious ceremonies.”
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As Karl Polanyi and his collaborators tried so hard to establish in the 1950s, it took thousands of years for the pecuniary ideas of standard prices, fines, and taxes to create a general market mentality. Bulk commodity trade at customary prices replaced gift exchange and rudimentary barter by a circuitous route, drawing on many social sources. Among the noncommercial catalysts to pecuniary reckoning were legal fines, military organization, the organization of sacrifices, and no doubt communal contributions to the public feasts discussed in The Distributive Justice of Group Feasts and Banquets. From the Near East diffused an elaboration of temple activities into the commercial sphere. By the third millennium BC a common standard of value developed throughout the Near East.Fact Check
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Can someone please check this fact? Have the dates of Libra in astrology changed throughout history? Wikipedia cites them as September 23 to October 22 or 23, although Encyclopedia Britannica says “about September 22 to about October 23.”
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In the beginning there seem to have been four major astrological signs, one for each season‚ our classical “fixed” signs comprising Taurus (spring), Leo (summer), Scorpio/eagle (autumn), and Aquarius (winter).
[Omitted text: Excursus on the “law-giving sky”: From Nanshe to Nemesis: The Justice-Goddess becomes angry.]Omitted Text
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[Omitted text: Perhaps here discuss false weights and measures, and how bad dealing began in the temples because that was where the surplus was concentrated. Later it spread to the economy at large as commerce became more privatized, especially in Mesopotamia’s Mediterranean periphery. Sun-gods of justice, from Utu/Shamash to Zeus/Jupiter.]
Nilsson[5] (1964: p. 189) stated that “Profane law (as well as religious law) had been placed from time immemorial under divine protection. Zeus watches over law and justice, and even after men had begun consciously to shape and alter the positive laws, Zeus sees that justice takes her proper course. For all primitive peoples law has divine sanction and authority.”There was more text here about false weights and measures, but it was a stub, so we omitted it. Can you help us expand it and work it into the text?
Hudson does address the first part a little later in this chapter, and so it appears to be fulfilled; but the rest needs some help to be realized.
(The first part of the note below that is realized at end of this chapter is executed in the later chapter text: “The practice was for merchants to employ a light weight when lending out money or selling goods, and a heavy one when buying or when collecting debts so as to oblige a larger receipt of silver or other commodities.”)
The omitted text was:Perhaps here discuss false weights and measures, and how bad dealing began in the temples because that was where the surplus was concentrated. Later it spread to the economy at large as commerce became more privatized, especially in Mesopotamia’s Mediterranean periphery. Sun-gods of justice, from Utu/Shamash to Zeus/Jupiter.
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[Omitted text: Astronomy was a key to sanctity. Egypt’s sed festival was named specifically for the star-covered garment worn by the pharaoh for his coronation (Bleeker[6] 1967; see also Griffiths[7] 1955). It had four threads, representing the four directions and thereby making the pharaoh ruler of the four quarters.]
There was more text here about astronomy and the Egyptian sed festival, but it was a stub, so we omitted it. Can you help us expand it and work it into the text?
The omitted text was:Astronomy was a key to sanctity. Egypt’s sed festival was named specifically for the star-covered garment worn by the pharaoh for his coronation (Bleeker[8] 1967; see also Griffiths[9] 1955). It had four threads, representing the four directions and thereby making the pharaoh ruler of the four quarters.]
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A Babylonian hymn to Shamash called on him to punish:
- “the merchant [damgar] who (practices) trickery as he holds the balances,
- who uses two sets of weights…
- The merchant who practices trickery as he holds the corn measure,
- who weighs out loans (or corn) by the minimum standard, but requires a larger quantity in repayment.” (Lambert 1967: p. 133)
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Can you help us find the text meant by Hooke 1928 (as it was originally written; we changed the year to 1933) so we can add a citation, footnote, and Bibliography entry? Also note this was 1928 or 1933, and another work by Hooke cited in this chapter is from 1968. We’re pretty sure we found what was referenced, but it’s possible there were multiple editions or we missed something on pp. 6f of the 1933 edition.Citation Needed
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If so, we don’t have access to the text; can you help us confirm it so we can add the full citation to the Bibliographies and add the year here with a footnote?Daniel T. Potts, Dilmun: New Studies in the Archaeology and Early History of Bahrain (Berlin: 1983).
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For Bibliography Consideration
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Elena Cassin, “Le sceau: Un fait de civilisation dans la Mesopotamie ancienne,” in Annales. Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations (1960), pp. 742–751.
Emile Szlechter, Le Contrat de société en Babylonie, en Grèce et à Rome (Paris: 1947).Consider adding these two texts from the Chapter 10 General Queries page, particularly the query on the Mini-Bibliography for Stub Paragraphs on Etymology, to the Chapter 10 Bibliography and book Bibliography chapter, if they are worked into the Chapter 10 body or determined to have been used in current Chapter 10 body text.
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C.J. Bleeker, Egyptian Festivals (Leiden: 1967).
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F. Gwyn Griffiths, “The Costume and Insignia of the King in the Sed Festival,” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 41 (1955), pp. 127–128.These two bibliographic items are part of this Chapter 10 query about astronomy and Egyptian sed festivals and not part of the Chapter 10 body currently. Let us know if either needs to be removed if none of their contents relate to Chapter 10’s body.
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- Query 1: Quotation: “establish equity (nig.sisa) and justice (nig.gina) in the land.”
- Query 2: In-text citation: Ephraim Speiser[12] (1953: p. 874)
- Query 3: Quotation: “kittum” represented “that which is firm, established, true”
- Query 4: Quotation: “The two terms are mutually complementary. … An immutable aspect of cosmic order, kittum is semantically the same as Biblical ‘emet (from *’amint), the original force of which still survives in the common loanword ‘Amen.’ The independent function of a ruler, whether divine or human, is confined to misharum, that is, just and equitable implementation.”
- Query 5: Footnote: Ephraim Speiser[13] (1953: p. 874)
- ↑ Émile Benveniste, Indo-European Language and Society (Coral Gables, Florida: 1973), pp. 138–144.
- ↑ Norman O. Brown, Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth (Great Barrington, Massachusetts: 1990 [1947]), p. 26.
- ↑ As J.J. Finkelstein (“The Edict of Ammisaduqa: A New Text,” Revue d’Assyriologie et d’Archéologie Orientale, Vol. 63, No. 1 (1969), pp. 57f.) has elaborated, Simanu “was the month par excellence for the settlement of debts and obligations and the beginning of contractual arrangements for the ensuing new agricultural year. One is even tempted to suggest that the name of month III, Simanu, does not derive from the activity of brickmaking, but rather from the far more significant activities of the agricultural economy which took place during this time. One might even posit that siman šadutti(m) ‘the season for settlement (of debts)’ represents the full designation of the period denoted as a proper month name in somewhat elliptical fashion as Simanu, ‘The Season (par excellence).’”
- ↑ Bernhard Laum, Über das Wesen des Münzgeldes: Eine sach und begriffsgeschichtliche Studie (Halle: 1929), pp. 37f.
- ↑ Martin P. Nilsson, A History of Greek Religion, 2nd ed. (New York: 1964), p. 189.
- ↑ C.J. Bleeker, Egyptian Festivals (Leiden: 1967).
- ↑ F. Gwyn Griffiths, “The Costume and Insignia of the King in the Sed Festival,” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 41 (1955).
- ↑ C.J. Bleeker, Egyptian Festivals (Leiden: 1967).
- ↑ F. Gwyn Griffiths, “The Costume and Insignia of the King in the Sed Festival,” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 41 (1955).
- ↑ S.H. Hooke, Myth and Ritual (London: 1933), pp. 47ff.
- ↑ Ephraim A. Speiser, “Cuneiform Law and the History of Civilization,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 107, No. 6 (December 1963), pp. 536–541.
- ↑ Ephraim A. Speiser, “Cuneiform Law and the History of Civilization,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 107, No. 6 (December 1963), pp. 536–541.
- ↑ Ephraim A. Speiser, “Cuneiform Law and the History of Civilization,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 107, No. 6 (December 1963), pp. 536–541.
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This footnote is a guess; there is no page 874 in the 1963 text, and 1953 was originally written as the year, but no text was specified correlating to that year. Let us know if you can replace this citation with an accurate citation, and we can replace this footnote and add the new citation to the Chapter 10 Bibliography and book Bibliography chapter. See related queries linked below:
- Query 1: Quotation: “establish equity (nig.sisa) and justice (nig.gina) in the land.”
- Query 2: In-text citation: Ephraim Speiser[3] (1953: p. 874)
- Query 3: Quotation: “kittum” represented “that which is firm, established, true”
- Query 4: Quotation: “The two terms are mutually complementary. … An immutable aspect of cosmic order, kittum is semantically the same as Biblical ‘emet (from *’amint), the original force of which still survives in the common loanword ‘Amen.’ The independent function of a ruler, whether divine or human, is confined to misharum, that is, just and equitable implementation.”
- Query 5: Footnote [this self-same query]: Ephraim Speiser[4] (1953: p. 874)
- Query 6: Bibliography: Ephraim A. Speiser, “Cuneiform Law and the History of Civilization,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 107, No. 6 (December 1963), pp. 536–541.
- ↑ Note the controversy over these words. Nissan, etc. For our purposes what is more important is the actual evolution, not merely the terminology. And this secularization can be shown, whatever the specific meaning of the words was to third-millennium BC Sumerians.
- ↑ Ephraim A. Speiser, “Cuneiform Law and the History of Civilization,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 107, No. 6 (December 1963), pp. 536–541.
- ↑ Ephraim A. Speiser, “Cuneiform Law and the History of Civilization,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 107, No. 6 (December 1963), pp. 536–541.
- ↑ Ephraim A. Speiser, “Cuneiform Law and the History of Civilization,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 107, No. 6 (December 1963), pp. 536–541.