Against the Grain by James C. Scott
Author:James C. Scott [Scott, James C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300182910
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2017-01-15T07:00:00+00:00
Figure 12. Prisoners in neck fetters. Photo courtesy of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, Dr. Ahmed Kamel
A curious confirmation of the conditions of slave and enslaved debtors in Ur III comes from reading a utopian hymn “against the grain.” Prior to the construction of a major temple (Eninnu) there was a ritual suspension of “ordinary” social relations in favor of a radical egalitarian moment. A poetic text describes what does not happen in this ritual of exception:
The slave woman was an equal of her mistress
The slave walked at his master’s side
The orphan was not delivered to the rich one
The widow was not delivered to the powerful one
The creditor did not enter one’s house
He [the ruler] undid the tongue of the whip and the goad
The master did not strike the slave on the head
The mistress did not slap the face of the slave women
He canceled the debts24
The depiction of a utopian space, by negating the ordinary woes of the poor, weak, and enslaved, provides a handy portrait of quotidian conditions.
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