The Sacred Economy of Ancient “Israel”

Abstract

Taking up the challenge to develop a new study of the economic patterns in the ancient Near East, including what passes for ancient “Israel’ (the Persian province of Yehud), this article proposes a model of the “sacred economy.” A study in economic history, it seeks to map out the broad contours of this sacred economy in light of the neglected but crucial economically–informed scholarship from the Soviet Union on the ancient Near East. The article identifies the key nodes of the sacred economy as the village–commune, the temple–city complex, the formation of the despotic state, the tensions between labour and class, and mediations between empire and village commune. It traces the development of the State to the tensions between the village commune and the city–temple complex. It also argues that the key features of this sacred economy may be described as regimes of allocation and regimes of extraction. The unique combination of these regimes and the tensions between them make up the sacred economy. The underlying logic of the regimes of allocation was to provide a rationale for the allocation of productive units such as land and fertility by means of kinship, the war machine, patron–client relations and the judiciary. All of this was posed in the language of the sacred, for the deity is the ultimate arbiter of allocation. By contrast, the regimes of extraction undermine the allocatory economic logic by means of a pattern of exploitation in terms of tribute and trade. This article insists upon the necessary centrality of economic analysis in any historiography of the Ancient Near East.     

The Everlasting Empire： The Political Culture of Ancient China and Its Imperial Legacy

To most specialists and non-specialists of Chinese political culture, probably the most intriguing question is why the Chinese empire, one of the largest political entities in human history, attained against all odds its unparalleled longevity for more than two millennia from 221 BCE to 1911. Building upon his previous study of the formation of China＇s unique imperial ideology prior to the foundation of the first dynasty, （Yuri Pines, Envisioning Eternal Empire： Chinese Political Thought of the Warring States Era, Honolulu： University of Hawai＇i Press, 2009）.     

The Ice Trade and the Northern Economy, 1840–1914

Abstract

This article examines the opinions, arguments and actions which led to the foundation of universities in the North: in alphabetical order, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield. Among the topics discussed are: the availability of funding from private sources, the extent of local (especially aristocratic) support, the limited involvement of governments, the differing attitudes towards science and technology, and civic rivalries. Essential features of the ‘university movement’ are displayed, along with the assumptions and ambitions of the Victorians, locally and nationally.     

A Review of “The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government,” and “Adam Smith as Theologian”

Abstract

Philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre has asserted in several writings that present-day democratic governing institutions fail to incorporate beliefs about the common good and deliberation. However, objections can be raised against MacIntyre's characterization based on research from a new field in political science, Deliberative Democracy. Empirical research in that field shows that the common good and deliberation still do have a place in the United States Congress. It also shows that what James Madison argued at the founding of the country still holds, that representative deliberative bodies aid in transforming arguments for private goods into arguments for the common good; they refine and enlarge the public views.     

Nature Conservation in Tibet──The Present Status and Its Outlook

The world-renowned American con-temporary artistRobert Rauschenberg has once said: "You spoke of the mys-teries of Tibet. Secrets are kept more securely in high places and this is the highest. The life of a true artist is a constant exploration of mys-teries and the unknown."Like Rauschenberg, sci-entists, adventurers, busi-nessmen and others who have visited here, all have treasured their experiences in Tibet and marveled its beauty and people.According to the pub-lished data in September…     

The Chosen People of Ancient Israel and the Occident: Why does Nationality Exist and Survive?

Abstract. The primary focus of this article differs from the author's earlier argument about why it may be legitimate-to apply the category of nationality to ancient Israel. The concern here is three-fold: an examination of the conceptions of Israel as the chosen people (both conditional and unconditional) in the Old Testament; the possible bearing of those conceptions on the historical imagination of the Occident; and what those conceptions might tell us about the constitution of nationality in general.