Investigation into the Impacts of Foreign Ruling Elites in Traditional State Societies: The Case of the Kassite State in Babylonia (Iraq)
[Thesis]
Helen O. Malko
Stone, Elizabeth C.; Bahrani, Zainab
State University of New York at Stony Brook
2014
336
Committee members: Hildebrand, Elisabeth; Zimansky, Paul
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-321-63925-4
Ph.D.
Anthropology
State University of New York at Stony Brook
2014
This thesis focuses on the study of foreign ruling minorities in traditional state societies. It investigates how the Kassites, as a foreign ethnic group, were able to control and maintain political power over the Babylonian majority for four centuries. In addition, it examines Kassite-Babylonian cultural interaction both on state and domestic levels as reflected in the material cultural and historical records. This study uses two contrasting ethnohistorical models of foreign ruling elites of the Arabs in Spain and the Mamluks in Egypt to evaluate the mechanisms employed by the Kassites to maintain power and the nature of their interaction with the Babylonian majority. Although the Kassites adopted Babylonian culture and traditions, they still maintained their language, names, deities, and social organization. Despite their small number and foreign background, the Kassites' political and socioeconomic practices continued long after their supremacy ended, leaving a long term imprint on Babylonian culture and society.
Archaeology; Ancient history; Ethnic studies
Social sciences;Ancient Near East;Babylonia;Ethnic minorities;Iraq;Kassites;Ruling elites