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Mutuare, interpretare, tradurre:
storie di culture a confronto

Atti del 2º Incontro «Orientalisti»
(Roma, 11-13 dicembre 2002)

a cura di Giuseppe Regalzi
prefazione di Chiara Peri

a Roberto Palazzi

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Mutuare, interpretare, tradurre: storie di culture a confronto. Atti del 2º Incontro «Orientalisti» (Roma, 11-13 dicembre 2002), a cura di Giuseppe Regalzi, prefazione di Chiara Peri, Roma, Associazione Orientalisti, 2003, http://purl.org/net/orientalisti/atti2002.htm.

Indice e abstracts

Prefazione (9-10)
Chiara Peri
Prefazione del curatore (11-12)
Giuseppe Regalzi
Il verbo «tradurre» ed il termine «traduttore» nel Vicino Oriente. Tre esempi: sumerico, eblaita, fenicio (13-38)
Danila Piacentini

This paper will analyze the multiple sources in which appeared the efforts, the people of the Ancient Near East made, to communicate each other although they had chosen each different linguistic systems. In English the significant “to translate” is adopted for the act performed by a man, the “translator”, who facilitates the comprehension between two foreign people. In the languages of the Ancient Near East we have a few terms which can fit this demand. They will be organized in a chronological way from the ancient Sumerian to the more recent Punic with a particular attention at the sources which had transmitted us these terms.

Considerazioni sulle dinamiche sociali nell’Alta Siria durante il Bronzo Tardo: il caso di Tell Mumbaqat, problemi di metodologia (39-47)
Simona Bracci

Some remarks are made about the Lake Assad basin sites during the Late Bronze: beginning with the center of Tell Mumbaqat, to which the most substantial and widely published archaeological evidences pertain, a brief analysis is tried of the use of the urban space and of the structures that fill the centers of Upper Syria, in order to obtain useful hints for the reconstruction of the social dynamics of that age.

La glittica di Siria e Palestina nel Bronzo Tardo. Le produzioni di Alalakh, Emar e Kumidi a confronto (49-65)
Riccardo Ceretti

This paper will be about the comparative and iconographical analysis of the seals and cylinder seals impressions found in the three sites of Alalakh, Emar and Kumidi, which show considerable differences both in their expressive modus and in their iconographic development.

Il paese di Aram attraverso le fonti assire da Tiglatpileser I a Salmanassar III (67-73)
Michela Alessandroni

The Assyrian annals are one of the most richest sources for the reconstruction of the Aramaic history; also from the geographical point of view they supply elements, more or less detailed depending on the circumstances described, but always fundamental. What we will call the “Country of Aram” (KUR a-ru-ma, mentioned in this way or in the different vocalizations) is one of the scenes in which some of the Assyrian expeditions take place. Before we proceed in this research we have to pay attention to the fact that this mountain region is interpreted and translated by the scholars by the simple “Aramaeans” instead of the name of their country, and that, I believe, for reasons connected to the state of the studies of this population and the lands traditionally inhabited by them. The aim of this research is to examine the Assyrian sources from the period of Tiglatpileser I to Salmanassar III to attempt a geographical reconstruction of the Country of Aram, to situate it between the northern highlands, and the role that it assumed in history (even though the sources of this research are partial); it is certain that other attestations of the Near-East, in particular those subsequent to ours, give further information which will be used to confirm the analysed documentation and to formulate some brief final considerations.

Topografia dell’ideale topografia del reale I: gli spazi urbani dalle iscrizioni reali neo-assire (75-84)
Marta Rivaroli

The aim of the following two papers is to analyze the different ways to perceive and thus express the urban landscape in the written cuneiform documentation. Two examples, each representing a specific text typology referring to a peculiar political and administrative context, are developed: the first paper examines the ideological topography of the urban layout as expressed by the Assyrian empire, whose royal inscriptions are one of the most meaningful examples of political ideology.

Topografia dell’ideale topografia del reale II: il paesaggio urbano dai testi giuridici di Emar (85-96)
Lucia Mori

The present paper is intended as an example of a comparative study on the topography of an ancient town from different documentary sources, together with the previous analysis, by Marta Rivaroli, of an ideal city planned by the Assyrian king and described in his royal inscriptions. As a matter of fact, it deals with a case study which concerns the reconstruction of the urban landscape from the legal documents found in the ancient town of Emar, the modern site of Meskene Qadime, in the Syrian upper Euphrates valley. These tablets have been written with the purpose of registering the transaction of real estates among private citizens, to prevent the possibility of claims against the buyer. They give a detailed description of lots and buildings for sale, with bordering properties, which allow the reconstruction of small areas of the ancient town, which have been compared to the archaeological evidence. Moreover, they contain legal clauses which give hints, to a certain extent, to understand the complex social background of a Syrian town in the XIII century BCE. An articulated ownership of land and buildings is reflected, in fact, by the massive presence of a sort of ‘city authority’ defined in the texts as “Ninurta and the elders of Emar” whose role is still to be clarified but that is certainly the main institution in charge of selling real estates, and whose function in this field was probably more effective than the one of the Emar palace and royal family. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the real organization and topographical layout of an ancient town as reflected by the private documents, in which even the members of the royal family act as private citizens together with the rest of the community.

Scultura e scrittura: indipendenza ed integrazione del messaggio (97-103)
Davide Nadali

This analysis would point out the aspects of the imperial ideology during Assurbanipal’s reign: the aim is to compare the two main propagandistic expressions, the draft of the annals and the sculptural representations of the royal deeds. The interpretation and the translation of the written and visual message allows to seize both the link and the diversity of the two “cultures” in the realization and the emphasis of the king’s role. We will consider only some examples of the main significant wall reliefs that combine the written and the visual propaganda.

Chi si librava sulle acque? Interpretazioni e trasformazioni di Gen 1,2 (105-13)
Giuseppe Regalzi

“And the Spirit of God was hovering upon the waters”: the sentence we read at the end of Gen 1:2 still puzzles the interpreters. What do these words exactly mean? Should the Hebrew ruach be translated as “wind”, or as “Spirit”? And, in any case, why is the ruach no more mentioned in the following verses, and is therefore apparently devoid of any role in the creation of the world?

This paper aims at tracing some of the interpretations and transformations Gen 1:2 underwent during the centuries, and at showing how the ruach was neither a wind nor a Spirit in the first stage of this process.

La crisi e la scrittura del passato: analogie fra Atene e Gerusalemme (115-25)
Massimo Gargiulo

The political crisis produced in Athens and Jerusalem similar cultural reactions: both tried to strengthen their identity (re)writing their history since the beginning by the redaction of detailed, but often artificial, genealogies. But also in the wider project of the so called Deuteronomistic history and its parallel Books of Chronicles we can find some links with the great Greek historiography of the 5th century, of which some examples are given.

Sul culto di Demetra nella Sardegna punica (127-43)
Giuseppe Garbati

The diffusion of cults addressed to the earth fertility represents one of the most distinctive aspects of the Sardinian rural landscape during the Hellenistic Age. Between the 4th and the 2nd century BCE, the hinterland of the greatest cities is characterized by a lot of small sanctuaries, generally constituted by sacred sources, little roofless buildings, often planned over nuragic installations and deprived of any architectural structures of monumental relief. The presence of these sacred areas is often pointed out by the distribution of the so-called favissae, around which the local religious life had to rotate considering the quantities, usually abundant, of terracotta offerings (anatomical ex voto, figurines of deities, the so-called “suffering believers”, thymiateria etc.).

The introduction of such devotional aspects in Sardinia has been postponed to the Carthaginian influence and, specifically, to the episode that, according to Diodorus Siculus, saw the institutional affirmation of Demetra’s cult in the Punic metropolis, after the destruction of the temple of Syracuse. After the event, that chronologically coincides, or maybe precedes, the most important period of the Carthaginian’s expansion in the island, the cult of Demetra would have followed the grain exploitation of the region. Nevertheless, even though the archaeological data seem to confirm, at least partly, a similar origin, the interpretation of the morphology of the cults themselves is really difficult as well as the possible identification of Demetra with Punic deities.

Besides, one of the most characteristic aspect, historically opposed to Diodorus’ tale, is the popular quality of this type of cults in the island. They were planned in the rural territory and practiced in areas frequented by the communities of the countryside: probably, according to these data, the cult’s organization was not administrated by the state and by the public and official institutions. Another aspect, that sets difficulty of interpretation, is the chronological definition of the phenomenon. Actually it seems to be planned on historical situations matured before the 4th century: the diffusion of Demetra’s cult could be preceded by the diffusion of terracotta productions, since the 5th century, inspired to the Greek craftsmanship of Sicily.

Demetra e Core nella religione punica (145-54)
Chiara Peri

According to the traditional view, based on a well-known passage by Diodorus Siculus, the cult of Demeter and Core was introduced in Carthage as a political act, following the war in Sicily. The Greek historian insists on the passive importation of the Greek rite in all its aspects (according to him, even the priests were Greek). In this paper we want to focus on the cult of the two goddesses in Sardinia and try to verify its supposed “official” character. The re-examination of all the archaeological findings and a reconsideration of the written sources may lead to a different interpretation of the meaning of the cult and of the forms it assumes in Sardinia and in other areas of the Punic world.

Traduzioni nelle epigrafi neopuniche nordafricane? (155-68)
Rossana De Simone

Neopunic inscriptions from North Africa offer several opportunities to make considerations on attempts of translation or interpretation of formulas and expressions unknown to Semitic tradition. The analysis of some funerary and votive texts may lead to identify some lines of interpretation.

Fuori e dentro la città. Saperi marginali e religione istituzionale nella Grecia antica (169-214)
Pietro Giammellaro

In the ancient Greek polis, besides the institutional religion, there were particular forms of belief, spread in every social class, related to some figures of itinerant diviners and magicians. They were mainly called agyrtai or goetes and we only know a few informations about their activity.

Through the history of these two terms it will be possible to say something about the role of marginal religious knowledge in the cultural and political development of the Greek city, as it appears in the writings of Hippocrates and Plato.

L’Impero e I suoi confini: terra, suolo e territorio nella prima dinastia Han (215-29)
Filippo Marsili

Under the aegis of the first Chinese controversial emperors, there flourished a passionate debate on the function of rule and its relationship with the territory. I propose to identify a “Daoist” background through an analysis of sources conceived for a “Confucian” élite.

Interpretare e essere interpretati: il caso della Malinche (231-44)
Sergio Botta

La Malinche, the interpreter of the expedition that Hernán Cortés drove to the conquest of Mexico, became a symbolic protagonist of the whole Mexican history. Her historic character was transformed into a powerful metaphor of the rising mestizo nation. La Malinche suffers on her body the collective afterthought of two cultures that are uniting their destinies. In the manifold attempts of interpretation of the new events, the Spaniards and the Natives addressed to the woman to give sense to the new reality. As an heroin of the Mexican nation, La Malinche transforms herself from interpreter to an object of interpretation.

Dal rifiuto all’incontro: il popolo zingaro nell’Italia centromeridionale nel Cinquecento e nel Seicento (245-55)
Carlo Stasolla
Induizzati, degenerati, da convertire. Interpretazioni del buddhismo newar della valle di Kathmandu (257-76)
Chiara Letizia

Traditional Newar Buddhism of the Kathmandu Valley has two features that set it apart from other varieties of Buddhism: the first is the absence of monks and the second is its rigid caste structure. During the XIV century, the institution of celibate monks has been replaced by the institution of hereditary Buddhist priests who serve the same functions as their Brahman counterparts. The life of the individual as well as the community is regulated by a multitude of complex rituals, many with an easily recognizable Hindu origin.

Many western scholars have concluded that Newar Buddhism is corrupt and degenerated or that it is Hinduism in all its aspects but the name. Such descriptions presuppose the (mythical) idea of a pure and original Buddhism.

In the first decades of XX century Theravada Buddhism arrived to Nepal, rejecting the Newar Buddhism with the ultimate aim of reorienting it towards the ‘original’ pattern still existing in countries like Ceylon or Burma. Theravada Buddhism has introduced a change in the self-image of the Newar Buddhists, through direct conversion or through its indirect influence. On the other hand, Theravadin makes use of rituals of Newar Buddhism, deviating from the time-honoured pattern they preach.

This study critically analyses the use of categories of purity, orthodoxy and the myth of originality. Both Theravada missionaries and western scholars’ interpretations of Newar Buddhism are made on the basis of these categories, external to the object to be converted or studied.

Historiography and Nationalism: A Match Made in Heaven (277-84)
Murat Cem Mengüç

Popularity of writing history among the nationalists is well known. One obvious reason for this is pre-nationalist history writing doesn’t analyze the past from the perspective of nationalism. Also, nationalism re-writes history to establish a link with the past, to prove a nation’s antiquity. Yet, it is obvious from the works of early nationalists, a nation always needs to be constructed.

Historiography, on the other hand, examines the past, and the late nineteenth century European historiography aspires to be an objective science in doing this. As a case study, the transformation of the Ottoman historiography into Turkish Historiography (1850-1940) suggests that the late nineteenth century European historiography offered the best available scientific-narrative in which a nation can be constructed. In fact, this scientific-narrative was so essential for constructing a nation that, to adopt nationalism meant to adopt the late nineteenth century European historiography.

‘Orientalism’ in Latin-American Perspective (285-94)
Cristina De Bernardi, Eleonora Ravenna

In Argentina, public University is being deeply affected by the neo-liberal policies. University matters are discussed as business affairs, inputs and quantifiable products. The ‘academic subject’ is being transformed constantly and systematically; caught in a net of figures, points and reports, spurred by the pressing need for financing (financing that nowadays does not exist); little by little, it is being intimidated in order to obstruct clearness and perspective. In this way, the government is also cutting out those fields of knowledge that are considered “useless.” The repeated question is, Ancient History, what for?

In this paper we attempt to answer this question and go beyond it. We would try to think about how to teach and how to do research work in Argentina, from a critical theoretical methodological point of view and from an epistemological conception that stresses that the construction of knowledge entails a conception of the ‘real,’ of society, of the subjects and of knowledge itself.

We consider Ancient History to be an address from the present to the vestiges of remote societies, and these vestiges are not ‘transparent.’ We will also think over the idea of progress and the subliminal unique historical development that it means, the Eurocentric implication of this and of the need to notice and respect the cultural diversity/difference.

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Pagina creata il 6 luglio 2003