Project description
Gender, sexuality and power in ancient Near East
The Assyrian Empire brought most parts of the Near East under its hegemony from 900 BCE to 600 BCE. As the world’s earliest empire, it has been widely studied from a king-centred approach. Only recent works on queenship sparked the consideration of traditional gender suppositions concerning power exercise in ancient Near East. The EU-funded Assyrian Eunuchs project focuses on the ša-rēši class of men defined as eunuchs to demonstrate that Assyria was a collaborative enterprise based on the active cooperation of a variety of groups and persons including the king. It will directly address traditional perceptions of the relationship between gender, sexuality and power structures in Assyria by describing the identity positions of the eunuchs, their historical evolution and the specific means used to negotiate their status.
Objective
The study of Assyria, the world’s earliest empire, has sought to define and reconstruct the material and immaterial structures of imperial power. Research to date has focused primarily on the roles and agency of the king, the most visible actor in the extant sources, though recent work on queenship has initiated an important reconsideration of traditional gender assumptions regarding the exercise and materialization of power in the ancient Near East. This project takes the next step in recognizing Assyria, like later empires, as a collaborative enterprise, one whose success was based in the active and deliberate contributions of diverse groups and individuals including but not limited to the king. It uses the ša-rēši, a class of men defined as eunuchs, as its chief case study to directly challenge traditional assumptions of the relationships between gender, sexuality, and power structures in Assyria. The project will focus on four major objectives: delineating the identity positions of the eunuchs and their historical situation and development; defining the specific material and visual means by which the eunuchs negotiated their status and agency; critically assessing traditional assumptions on the relationships of gender, sexuality, and power, and the ongoing influence on these of Orientalism; and illuminating the actual roles, functioning, and agency of eunuchs in Assyria. The project is strongly multidisciplinary, involving close analysis of newly accessible textual, artefactual, and image corpora through the application of advanced approaches and methodologies drawn from disciplines including art history and material culture studies as well as archaeology and philology. Results will redefine our understanding of the world’s earliest imperial system, Assyria, and serve as a model for reconsidering the roles of perceived marginal groups as important actors in other imperial systems.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology
- humanities arts art history
- humanities languages and literature literature studies history of literature
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
14195 BERLIN
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.