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too must die. Having learned the truth of his own destiny, Gilgamesh returns to the land of the living to live out the full life of a mortal. It was necessary to recapitulate the story's essence here in order that we may have it in our minds as we tum to Homer's Odyssey. 8Ibid., page 93, Tablet
the household lifecycle or "life course" produced by preindustrial rates of mortality and fertility. The in- teraction of mortality and fertility rates determines the proportion of the population who would have living kin of a given sex at a given age, and thus the proportion who could be expected
pillars has often been interpreted as an open courtyard, although Stager (1985a:15f.), John Holladay (1986), and Ehud Netzer (1992: 197) have all suggested that this area was covered by an upper floor (see figure 4 above), which provided additional space in second-story living quar- ters.2 It has
goal- motivated social action must also be taken into account. 30 Interpretation Theory and Ancient Studies that underlie positivist social science. As a result, processualist criticisms of the hermeneutical view of the relationship between the human and natural sci- ences which might be valid if
traditions speaks volumes for the antiquity of these traditions. That a Greek writer living in Alexandria could allude to Palestinian exegetical traditions with such brevity, almost as an afterthought, and that these traditions had become so connected with the biblical text as to become part of the
have as their ultimate goal the understanding of human his- tory as a whole. Because all participate in a common historical life there is a level at which the understand- ing of individual expressions of that life is not merely subjective, for such understanding contributes to a common self
III. MEDITERRANEAN HOUSES AND HOUSEHOLDS Chapter 6. Before the Bourgeoisie WE CANNOT discuss the economic and demo- graphic features of patriarchal households in the Bronze and Iron Age Levant without first sketch- ing a picture of urban life in the ancient Mediterra- nean world and considering
Israel's Exodus living conditions in booths (tents), a situation resembling the life setting imagined for the Cove- nant Formula. The transmission of the Covenant Formula at the festival of Booths can thus be thought to account for the sec- ondary linking of covenant and obedience themes to a taber
particular material condi- tions, but it must be remembered that the material conditions of social life (both environmental and economic) are themselves reciprocally affected by, or even created by, social action itself-action that is motivated by a particular symbolization of the world. Interpretive
motivated. In the larger context of a redacted block of mate- rials setting the story of the golden calf immediately before the fragmentary notices of Exod 33:1-6, the label fits. But apart from this redactional placement, it is difficult to understand why Yahweh calls Israel 'am-qlseh- 'orep. One gains