The aim of this unit is to foster ethnographic readings of biblical stories and anthropological perspectives on the archaeology and history of ancient Palestine in its Near Eastern context. Relevant topics for discussion are:

Political and historical anthropology of ancient Palestine (city-states, urbanization, state-formation processes, ethnogenesis)
Mediterranean anthropology in biblical narratives (patronage, hospitality, feud, honour and shame, food)
Sociology and anthropology of religion and ancient Palestinian cultic and ritual data (aniconism, iconography, burial, cultic places, etc.)

Sociology and anthropology of biblical studies (the production of academic knowledge and its impact on society)

E. Pfoh (ed.), Anthropology and the Bible: Critical Perspectives (Biblical Intersections, 3; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010).