Lecture | LIAS After-Lunch Talk Series
Ritual at the Gates: Liminality, Transformation and Separation in Ancient Near Eastern Magic
- Date
- Wednesday 9 April 2025
- Time
- Serie
- LIAS After-Lunch Talk Series
- Address
-
Herta Mohr
Witte Singel 27A
2311 BG Leiden - Room
- 1.30 (KITLV Seminar Room)
Abstract
Ever since Arnold van Gennep’s pioneering ethnographic work in the early twentieth century, sociologists and anthropologists have been fascinated by the concept of “rites of passage”. Van Gennep claimed that such three-stage rituals occur in every significant event in people’s lives. This talk is based on my new book, “Magical Passages in Ancient Near Eastern Rituals: Liminality, Transformation and Separation” (Routledge, 2025), which surveys rites of passage in ancient Near Eastern magical rituals that used makeshift gates and structures, as well as house doors. These temporary and permanent architectural elements formed “conceptual anchors” surrounded by an elaborate ceremonial system. In my talk, I offer theoretical considerations concerning rites of passage, introduce the realm of ancient Near Eastern magical rituals, and present the textual corpus of my research with illustrative exemplary case studies. This talk combines historical and philological methodologies of ancient Near Eastern studies with theoretical perspectives from the social sciences.
About the speaker
Ilan Peled is a historian of the ancient Near East. Trained in Assyriology, Hittitology and Biblical Studies, his research focuses on law, gender, religion and cult among some of the most ancient literate cultures in human history. After completing his PhD, he held postdoctoral appointments at New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Before joining the staff of LIAS in 2021, he worked as a lecturer at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam. He has published the monographs Masculinities and Third Gender (2016) and Law and Gender in the Ancient Near East (2020), the edited volume Structures of Power (2017), and several dozens of articles discussing various aspects of history and culture in the ancient Near East. His third monograph, Magical Passages in Ancient Near Eastern Rituals will appear in 2025.