PILGRIMAGE AND HOUSEHOLD IN THE ANCIENT
NEAR EAST
In this book, Joy McCorriston examines the continuity of traditions over
millennia in the Near East. Tracing the phenomenon of pilgrimage in
pre-Islamic Arabia up through the development of the Haj, she defines its
essential characteristics and emphasizes the critical role that pilgrimage
plays in enabling and developing socioeconomic transactions. Indeed,
the social identities constructed through pilgrimage are key to under-
standing the long-term endurance of the phenomenon. In the second
part of the book, McCorriston turns to the household, using cases of
ancient households in Mesopotamian societies, in both the private
and public spheres. Her conclusions tie together broader theoretical
implications generated by the study of the two phenomena and offer a
new paradigm for archaeological study, which has traditionally focused
on transitions to the exclusion of continuity of traditions.
Joy McCorriston is Associate Professor of Anthropology at The Ohio
State University. She has published more than forty academic articles
and book chapters on the origins of food production, the development of
agricultural economies through the Bronze Age, and Southern Arabian
pre-history. She currently leads the Ancient Human Social Dynamics in
Arabia Project in Oman.
www.cambridge.org © in this web service Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-76851-1 - Pilgrimage and Household in the Ancient Near East
Joy McCorriston
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