Mesopotamia : writing, reasoning and the gods
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Mesopotamia : writing, reasoning and the gods
University of Chicago Press, 1995
- : pbk
- Other Title
-
Mésopotamie : l'écriture, la raison et les dieux
Available at 14 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
First published: Paris : Gallimard , c1987
Bibliography: p. 305-308
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The Mesopotamians invented writing and with it a new way of looking at the world. In this collection of essays, the French scholar Jean Bottero attempts to go back to the moment which marks the very beginning of history. To give the reader some sense of how Mesopotamian civilization has been mediated and interpreted in its transmission through time, Bottero begins with an account of assyriology, the discipline devoted to the ancient culture. Bottero focuses on divination in the ancient world, contending that certain modes of worship in Mesopotamia, in their application of casuality and proof, prefigure the "scientific mind."
Table of Contents
Chronology Rules of transcription and translation Map The Birth of the West I: Assyriology 1: In Defense of a Useless Science 2: Assyriology and Our History 3: A Century of Assyriology II: Writing 4: The "Avalanche" of Decipherments in the Ancient Near East between 1800 and 1930 5: From Mnemonic Device to Script 6: Writing and Dialectics, or the Progress of Knowledge III: "Reasoning": Institutions and Mentality 7: Oneiromancy 8: Divination and the Scientific Spirit 9: The Substitute King and His Fate 10: The "Code" of Hammurabi 11: "Free Love" and Its Disadvantages IV: "The Gods": Religion 12: The Religious System 13: Intelligence and the Technical Function of Power: Enki/Ea 14: The Dialogue of Pessimism and Transcendence 15: The Mythology of Death Glossary-Index References Bibliographical Orientation
by "Nielsen BookData"