The Notion of Body and Illness in the Healing Rituals of the 1st Millennium BCE Mesopotamia: The Case of Fever

• Thesis title in Czech: Obraz těla a nemoci v léčebných rituálech Mezopotámie 1. tis. př.n.l.: Příklad horečky
• Thesis title in English: The Notion of Body and Illness in the Healing Rituals of the 1st Millennium BCE Mesopotamia: The Case of Fever
• Key words: Mezopotámie|asyriologie|religionistika|medicína|léčebné rituály|antropologie|tělo|tělesnost|horečka
• English key words: Mesopotamia|Assyriology|Religious studies|medicine|healing rituals|anthropology|body|embodiment|fever
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2019/2020
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies (21-UFAR)
• Supervisor: Mgr. Evelyne Koubková
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 22.09.2020
• Date of assignment: 22.09.2020
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 05.10.2020
• Date and time of defence: 09.09.2021 14:00
• Date of electronic submission: 06.08.2021
• Date of proceeded defence: 09.09.2021
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: doc. Dalibor Antalík, Dr.

Guidelines

My thesis will be based on theories of embodiment and the related assumption that bodily experience is not (only) a biological given, since the perception of one's body, its activity, and even the physical body itself are created also by the environment and culture which they in turn themselves influence. This mutual interaction is often illustrated by the concepts of illness and healing, which have been analysed by certain scholars as culturally determined (see e.g. Thomas Csordas, 1990) in contrast to the generally accepted notion of illness as a biological given.
My aim is to study the form these concepts take in the healing rituals of the 1st millennium BCE Mesopotamia from this particular vantage point. I will focus on the healing of various types of fevers as depicted in the canonized version of therapeutic rituals, with respect to the context provided by other contemporary sources. Since the study of a dead culture provides limited information on the patient's experience, I will concentrate on the notions offered to the patient by the ritual, and by the culture. I will analyse the physical treatment of the patient's body in the healing ritual, the language used to describe illness and healing, and the context in which the healing takes place.

References

EDICE PRIMÁRNÍCH PRAMENŮ
ABUSCH, Tzvi & Daniel SCHWEMER. Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals. Volume I. – Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2011.
ABUSCH, Tzvi & Daniel SCHWEMER. Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals. Volume II. – Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2016.
BÁCSKAY, András. „Magical-medical Prescriptions against Fever: an Edition of BM 42272“. Le Journal des Médicines Cunéiformes 26 (2015), s. 1-32.
BÁCSKAY, András. Therapeutic Prescriptions against Fever in Ancient Mesopotamia. AOAT 447. Münster: Ugarit Verlag, 2018.
JANOWSKI, Bernd & Daniel SCHWEMER, eds. Texte zur Heilkunde (TUAT-NF 5). Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2010.
SCURLOCK, Jo Ann. Sourcebook for Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2014.

SEKUNDÁRNÍ PRAMENY
Teorie a metodologie
BELL, Catherine. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
BUTLER, Judith. Bodies That Matter. London & New York, Routledge: 1993, 2011.
COMAROFF, Jean. Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance. The Culture and History of South African People. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
CSORDAS, Thomas, ed. Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground of Culture and Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
CSORDAS, T. J. Body/Meaning/Healing. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
DOUGLAS, Mary. „The Two Bodies“ in Natural Symbols. London & New York: Routledge, 1996. S. 69–87.
JACKSON, Michael. 1987 „Knowledge of the Body“ in Paths Toward a Clearing. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. S. 119–136.
LAKOFF, George & Mark JOHNSON. Philosophy in the Flesh. The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books, 1999.
LOCK, Margaret. „Cultivating the Body: Anthropology and Epistemologies of Bodily Practice and Knowledge.“ Annual Review of Anthropology 22 (1993), s. 133-155.
VAN WOLPUTTE, Steven. „Hang on to Your Self: Of Bodies, Embodiment, and Selves.“ Annual Review of Anthropology 33 (2004), s. 251–269.
Prameny k tématu nemoci a tělesnosti v Mezopotámii
ABUSCH, Tzvi. „The Internalization of Suffering and Illness in Mesopotamia: A Development in Mesopotamian Witchcraft Literature.“ Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici sul Vicino Oriente Antico 15 (1998), s. 49-58.
ADAMSON, P. В. „Human Diseases and Deaths in the Ancient Near East.“ Die Welt des Orients. Wissenschaftliche Beiträge zur Kunde des Morgenlandes 13 (1982), s. 5-14.
ATTIA, Annie & Giles BUISSON, eds. Advances in Mesopotamian Medicine from Hammurabi to Hippocrates. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2009.
AVALOS, Hector. Illness and Health Care in the Ancient Near East. The Role of the Temple in Greece, Mesopotamia, and Israel. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.
BERLEJUNG, Angelika, Jan DIETRICH & Joachim Friedrich QUACK, eds. Menschenbilder und Körperkonzepte im Alten Israel, in Ägypten und im Alten Orient. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012.
BÖCK, Barbara. The Healing Goddess Gula. Towards an Understanding of Ancient Babylonian Medicine. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2014.
BÖCK, Barbara. „‘When You Perform the Ritual of ‘Rubbing’’: On Medicine and Magic in Ancient Mesopotamia.“ Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 62/1 (2003), s. 1–16.
FINKEL, I. L. & M.J. GELLER, eds. Disease in Babylonia. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2007.
GELLER, Markham J. „Ancient Medicine: the Patient's Perspective.“ Journal of Nephrology 17/4 (2004), s. 605–610.
ROBSON, E. „Mesopotamian Medicine and Religion: Current Debates, New Perspectives.“ Religion Compass 2 (2008), s. 455–483.
SALIN, Silvia. „When Disease “Touches”, “Hits”, or “Seizes” in Assyro-Babylonian Medicine.“ KASKAL 12 (2015), s. 319–336.
SCURLOCK, JoAnn. „Medicine and Healing Magic“ in Women in the Ancient Near East. A Sourcebook. M. W. CHAVALAS, ed. London & New York: Routledge, 2014. S. 101–143.
SCHEYING, Hans. „Babylonisch-assyrische Krankheitstheorie. Korrelationen zwischen medizinischen Diagnosen und therapeutischen Konzepten.“ Die Welt des Orients. Wissenschaftliche Beiträge zur Kunde des Morgenlandes 41 (2011), s. 79–117.
STEINERT, Ulrike. Aspekte des Menschseins im Alten Mesopotamien. Eine Studie zu Person und Identität im 2. und 1. Jt. v. Christ. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2012.