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An Ethical View of Human-Animal Relations in the Ancient Near East

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Idan Breier

    1. The Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

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  • Explores biblical and Mesopotamian sources, the earliest literary evidence for human-animal relations
  • Provides the first comprehensive study of these texts from an ethical perspective
  • Applies methodology from current contemporary biblical and ancient Near Eastern scholarship and human-animal ethics

Part of the book series: The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series (PMAES)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Idan Breier
    Pages 1-18

  3. Fauna in Ancient Sumerian Proverbs: The Role Animals Played in Shaping Southern Mesopotamian Social Norms and Conventions

    • Idan Breier
    Pages 19-49

  4. Sumerian Faunal Fables: Talking Animals and Educational Lessons

    • Idan Breier
    Pages 51-65

  5. Human Relations with the Animal Kingdom in Mesopotamian Literary Genres

    • Idan Breier
    Pages 67-103

  6. Animals in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Law Codes

    • Idan Breier
    Pages 105-130

  7. Human-Animal Relations in Biblical Narrative and Historiography

    • Idan Breier
    Pages 131-173

  8. Human-Animal Relations in Classical Prophecy

    • Idan Breier
    Pages 175-205

  9. The Place and Role of Animals in the Psalms and Biblical Wisdom Literature

    • Idan Breier
    Pages 207-240

  10. Conclusion

    • Idan Breier
    Pages 241-246

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 247-254
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Keywords

About this book

Exploring the earliest literary evidence for human-animal relations, this volume presents and analyzes biblical and Mesopotamian (Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian) sources from the third millennium BCE through to the consolidation of the biblical literature in the first millennium BCE.

Key Features:

  • Provides the first comprehensive study of these texts from an ethical perspective.
  • Examines proverbs, popular aphorisms, myths, epic literature, wisdom literature, historiography, prophecy, and law codes.
  • Applies methodology from current contemporary biblical and ancient Near Eastern scholarship and human-animal ethics, thereby raising new questions that lead to fresh insights.

​An Ethical View of Human Animal-Relations in the Ancient Near East is essential reading for scholars and graduate students of animal ethics, applied ethics and biblical studies.






Reviews

“Breier’s interdisciplinary methods … and the pictures he leaves us with are fittingly varied and complex … . To take an image from the Book of Mark, having prepared so much good ground so carefully, Breier is to be commended for sowing these many mustard seeds. The concluding portions of each chapter serve to marshal broad and disparate textual evidence into a series of manageable overviews that may act as fertile starting points for further ethical analysis.” (Alastair Harden, Journal of Animal Ethics, Vol. 13 (2), 2023)

Authors and Affiliations

  • The Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Idan Breier

About the author

Idan Breier is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: An Ethical View of Human-Animal Relations in the Ancient Near East

  • Authors: Idan Breier

  • Series Title: The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12405-1

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-12404-4Published: 20 October 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-12407-5Published: 21 October 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-12405-1Published: 19 October 2022

  • Series ISSN: 2634-6672

  • Series E-ISSN: 2634-6680

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 254

  • Topics: Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science, Ethics, Biblical Studies

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