Theoretical Understandings (Binsbergan/Wiggermann)

Sources drawn from:

Its stated that the outline of the development of the ideological system [the Hegemonic process] stems from more or less datable mythological texts linked to archaeological and historical fact. [1]


In sum the authors views here are that the emergence of city states in the southern alluvial plains were characterized by the organization of two key public institutions - the temple and the palace. Though these institutions facilitated production, extraction and domination, "it was the imposition of this complex as a whole upon other, earlier domains of human organization and activity which marks the nature of the hegemonic process involved." Both temple and palace have their own internal hierarchical orders, which depend in turn on extraction and surplus from pre-existing domains, this might be termed exploitive, though through religious ideology this 'exploitation is concealed'. Nonetheless these institutions ensured "production and security", and "urban and ethnic identity."

"In the first half of the third millennium the political ideology was centered on the axis: city-god / city-ruler: there is not yet a national state, but the notion of national religious unity is maintained by the centrality of Eridu and its god Enki/ Ea. The second half of the third millennium sees the development of a national kingship centered on Nippur and Enlil."

-That the Sumerian King List lists Eridu as the seat of the earliest kingship is undoubtedly an anachronism related to the nature of this text.-





The Authors here sharply contrast two familiar aspects of Sumerian religion, with rare Analytical finesse:





An earlier level of religious centralism focused on Enki and Eridu, and its here that can be found the "touchstone of tradition (me)" - the me are not created but "are simply there as part of the universe; they are the rules of tradition, the unchanging ways in which the world of man and things is [sic] supposed to be organized." The authors add that as a cosmological principal the me "appear to stem from a religious repertoire predating the third millennium and rather of a Late Neolithic signature."



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Emerging with the political centralization in the middle of the second millennium is a centralistic idiom focusing on Enlil - Enlil, "and less prominently the other gods, govern by namtar, that is by 'allocating tasks', 'determining the fates / destinies' of gods, man and the universe." Namtar connotates the governmental decisions made by Enlil.


-In ways which are eminently important for an understanding of Mesopotamian Magic as part of a historical process, the concept of namtar contrasts with another normative principal, that of the me.-[2]


Following the authors look into third millennium cosmology (one must assume of the para-Hegemonic sort), which gives the sequence of Namma producing heaven and earth, these produce the Du6-kug (Holy Mound), which in turn produce Enlil, who splits heaven and earth and thus - "Enlil, representing the space between Heaven and Earth, the sphere of human and animal life, organizes what he find by his decisions (namtar/shimtu)." Its here the authors insert a very interesting addition into the cosmological sequence - 'before being permanently subjected by Enlil, the primoridal order (Heaven/Earth) rebels and sends Enmesharra (Lord all Me) to try and usurp Enlil's prerogative to namtar (making decisions).' He is defeated by Enlil and incarcerated in the Netherworld for good. [3] Its suggested therefore that the confrontation between Enlil and Enmesharra embodies the opposition of Namtar and the Me, or the forth domain of control over the domestic domain.
However other examples cited by the authors demonstrate mythological evidence that divine rule was not beyond question, as threats continued after Enlil had established his rule, from the mountainous regions outside Sumer for instance. [4]



Binsbergen and Wiggermann propose an equation between the untamed pre-hegemonic universe of the me with that of holism and magic. Its noted Specialists in the magical arts fundamentally refer to the Eridu circle and predominantly to Enki the guardian of the me. [5]

The myth of Anzu and Adapa:
In the moment that the Anzu turns back Ninurta's arrow's, the authors see the power of his word (namtar) (since Anzu is in that moment in possession of the Tablet of Fates) as that which acts as "the power to operate the universe of inanimate things and make them change their normal ways, their me, or, in other words, to perform magic. [6]

-reed that approaches me, return to your thicket
frame of the bow to your forest
string, to the back of the sheep, feathers return to the birds’-

The following logic train is then applied:
Possession of the tablet of fates involved the 'secret of Heaven and Earth' -normally a divine prerogative. Even without the tablet, one can perform magic if one has the secret, as in the myth of Adapa, when Adapa's word broke the wing of the South wind. "What we have called 'the way to operate nature' is the 'secret of Heaven and Earth'...the secret of the universe regulated by the me/ par_u".







-"Although the canonical view understands omens as messages of the gods concerning their decisions, the 'great mass of Mesopotamian omen material was basically non-theistic."-


The above view of Divination is substantiated by considerations of the measures prescribed to avert a predicted evil, methods used by the diviner, and the methods used by the diviner to interpret signs. Its then added:

"A similar case as for the diviner can be made for the incantation specialist (ashipu), who nominally attributes his art to the gods, but in fact uses methods that stem from the holistic rather than from the theistic repertoire. This is clear especially in incantations of the Marduk Ea type and in the Kultmittelbeschwörungen. In the latter type of incantations plants, minerals and animal substances are addressed and given their effectiveness as materia magica by a series of mythical statements relating them to the pristine purity of Heaven and Earth.
Often the k u r , ‘mountain lands’, appear in this context as well. The grouping of Heaven, Earth and mountain lands as the place of origin both of the demons and of the materia magica reveals that what we have called ‘pristine purity’ and the demonic share the same pre-hegemonic holistic qualities. The subject of purity, and its relation to the knowledge of the ‘secret of Heaven and Earth’, one of the themes of the Adapa legend, cannot be discussed here."[7]

The authors therefore see the instances when an incantation is attributed to the gods (divine legitimation) as a essential non-sequiter with the manipulation of inanimate matter constituting "an application of the 'secret of Heaven and Earth', the ancient science that the theistic idiom had been unable to eradicate."


Concluding comments on Holism in the Arcane Arts of Mesopotamia:


The evil u d u g and a z a g demons which the incantation specialist confronts in the older magical texts, belong to the same holistic world as his counter-measures: they are the non-anthropomorphic breed of Heaven and Earth, a-moral outsiders sharing neither the burdens nor the profits of civilization. They attack man indiscriminately, not because of his sins (a hegemonic concept), but in order to take by force what they do not get by right: food and drink. The essential characteristic of these demons is that they do not have a cult, so that they cannot profit from the co-operation with man on a regular basis as the gods do. They are not members of the civilized centre, and in many incantations the specialist adjures them by the non-theistic entities they belong to: Heaven and Earth, the untamed universe.

Surprisingly there is a second class of demons in the early incantation material, the enforcers of E n l i l ’s rule: the personified n a m t a r / shimtu, ‘Destiny’, himself, the g a l l a / gallu policemen, and the m a sh k i m / rabi_u inspectors. These essentially legitimate spirits do not have a cult either, but are expected ‘to eat at the table of their father E n l i l ’. They have a demonic quality because their commander E n l i l shares an important characteristic with real demons: beyond being served in an orderly fashion, he has no interest in man. E n l i l ’s lack of interest in the fate of mankind is exemplified by the creation myths, in which man is created as a work force to replace the demurring lower gods whose task it is to serve under E n l i l . When later the noise of man disturbs E n l i l ’s sleep he is immediately ready to destroy his human servants, for whether by man or by the lower gods, E n l i l will be served anyhow. Thus, although framed in a theistic idiom, ashiputu encodes a tension between the humanitarian gods of white magic and E n l i l ’s legal but oppressive rule, a clear anti-hegemonic tendency. It is undoubtedly to redress this evil that some very early incantations replace E n k i / Ea by E n l i l .60 [8]

OH NO looks like the shikanda.net web site is dead. Perhaps they forgot to renew their domain registration.

Google cache still has it:

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Article Notes

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(Originally posted Jan./16/2008)

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Update: Looks like the original B/W article (Yes here is back up -Yay!-

In honor of this occasion I'm quoting a citation of Cunninghams' in which he mentions the following lexical entry from MSL 14 p.23 1-7

^-šibišib = i-ši-pu, a-ši-pu, el-lu, ra-am-ku, šip-tum, pa-ši-šu, par-şu


As Cunningham explains, this lexical list "equates the išib profession with various Akkadian terms for incantation priest, incantation and purity, as well with one of the central Mesopotamian concepts of order, parşū, which in a narrow sense means ritual ordinances but more broadly cosmic ordinances or the ordering principals of the divine and human worlds. The incantations' concern with purity can thus be regarded as serving to maintain this order and in the instances where it is disrupted - as in the case of illness - as serving to restore it."

parşū is in turn an Akkadian term for me - and so this note further re-enforces the view of the alternative idiom of a profession that operated within the hegemonic structure, as per B/W.