Finding, Inheriting or Borrowing? : The Construction and Transfer of Knowledge in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

Since the dawn of humanity, people have developed concepts about themselves and the natural world in which they live. This volume aims at investigating the construction and transfer of such concepts between and within various ancient and medieval cultures. The single contributions try to answer questions concerning the sources of knowledge, the strategies of transfer and legitimation as well as the conceptual changes over time and space. After a comprehensive introduction, the volume is divided into three parts: The contributions of the first section treat various theoretical and methodological aspects. Two additional thematic sections deal with a special field of knowledge, i.e. concepts of the moon and of the end of the world in fire. CONTENT Preface and Acknowledgements The Construction and Transfer of Knowledge in the Pre-Modern Era SECTION 1: METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL ASPECTS Transmitting Symbolic Concepts from the Perspective of Cultural Cognition – The Acquisition and Transfer of Folk-biological Knowledge The Transfer of Knowledge from Mesopotamia to Egypt Epistemology in the Biblical Tradition – Judean Knowledge-Building, Scribal Craftsmanship, and Scribal Culture Bodies of Texts, Bodies of Tradition – Medical Expertise and Knowledge of the Body among Rabbinic Jews in Late Antiquity The Reception and Rejection of “Foreign” Astronomical Knowledge in Byzantium SECTION 2: OF MAN AND MOON – KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL MEANING OF THE MOON “He assigned Him as the Jewel of the night” – The Knowledge of the Moon in Mesopotamian Texts of the Late Second and First Millennia BCE Shapeshifter – Knowledge of the Moon in Graeco-Roman Egypt Concepts Concerning the Moon in Plutarch’s De facie in orbe lunae – Found, Inherited, or Borrowed Ideas Conclusion – Of Moon and Men: Observations about the Knowledge of the Moon in Antiquity SECTION 3: THE END OF THE WORLD IN FIRE – IMAGINATIONS FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE MIDDLE AGES Know Your Sources Before You Argue – Minucius Felix and Augustine of Hippo on the Conflagration The Idea of an Apocalyptic Fire According to the Old and Middle Iranian Sources Poets, Prophets, and Philosophers – The End of the World According to Otto von Freising The Ragnarǫk Myth in Scandinavia – Finding, Inheriting, and Borrowing Conclusion – The End of the World in Fire About the Authors Authors and Texts Cited General index The creation and justification of knowledge in antiquity and the Middle Ages gives rise to several questions: How is `foreign' knowledge given authority? What are the mechanisms of legitimation? Are the ascriptions by the sources concerning the origin of knowledge as either inherited or borrowed traceable and comprehensible or artificial and unfounded? Does transferred knowledge create new concepts during the act of borrowing? To answer these questions, the volume is divided into three parts: After a section on theoretical and methodological considerations, two thematic sections deal with a special field of knowledge, i.e. on concepts of the moon and of the end of the world in fire. The creation and justification of knowledge in antiquity and the Middle Ages gives rise to several questions: How is 'foreign' knowledge given authority? What are the mechanisms of legitimation? Are the ascriptions by the sources concerning the origin of knowledge as either inherited or borrowed traceable and comprehensible or artificial and unfounded? Does transferred knowledge create new concepts during the act of borrowing?0To answer these questions, the volume is divided into three parts: After a section on theoretical and methodological considerations, two thematic sections deal with a special field of knowledge, i.e. on concepts of the moon and of the end of the world in fire