An ethnohistorical survey of heteronormativity and nonheteronormativity: The role of etiological myths in the construction of gender and sexuality in Bronze Age Mesopotamia.

摘要

While ethnohistory has been extensively employed by historical anthropologists in tracing cultural changes among various indigenous peoples at the time of European contact, it has been largely ignored by anthropologists of the ancient Near East. Traditional historians were largely concerned with historical people, places, and events, not with ethnographically describing a culture. Using two case studies, this thesis will demonstrate the value of ethnohistorical methods to areas of study where such methods have largely been ignored, namely gender and sexuality studies, religious studies, and ANE studies. The first case study examines how gender was socially constructed in the case of high class celibate nadi?tum "nuns" in Old Babylonian period Sippar. The second case study examines third-gender categories and non-heteronormative sexuality in Inanna's cultus. The role of etiological myths in the construction of gender and sexuality will be of particular interest in both case studies.