Descrizione del progetto
Genere, sessualità e potere nel Vicino Oriente antico
Nel periodo compreso tra il 900 a.C. e il 600 a.C. l’Impero assiro assoggettò sotto la propria egemonia la maggior parte delle zone che costituiscono il Vicino Oriente. Primo impero in assoluto al mondo, è stato ampiamente esaminato mediante un approccio incentrato sui re che l’hanno governato. Solo gli studi recenti sulla regalità femminile hanno posto l’accento sulle tradizionali supposizioni di genere in merito all’esercizio del potere nel Vicino Oriente antico. Il progetto Assyrian Eunuchs, finanziato dall’UE, concentra l’attenzione sulla classe di uomini definita come eunuchi, chiamata ša-rēši, per dimostrare che l’Assiria era un’impresa collaborativa basata sulla cooperazione attiva di una vasta gamma di gruppi e persone, tra cui il re. Il progetto si occuperà direttamente delle tradizionali percezioni in merito al rapporto tra genere, sessualità e strutture di potere in Assiria descrivendo le posizioni identitarie degli eunuchi, la loro evoluzione storica e gli specifici mezzi utilizzati per la negoziazione del loro stato.
Obiettivo
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.
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Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
14195 Berlin
Germania