This talk will examine the terracotta figurines of women and mothers with babies from Neo-Babylonia (southern Iraq) and Judea (modern Israel) in the mid 1st millennium BCE. This figurines, especially the Judean Pillar Figurines, have been the subject of a huge amount of scholarly debate, particularly focused on the function of the figurines and the woman’s identity (Is she a goddess? A human? A concept, like fertility?). This talk will instead explore the social meaning of the incredibly high level of standardization seen in these figurines, suggesting that their repetitiveness was a role model for a tightly restricted range of identity options for living people. This talk will argue that the idea that “all happy families are alike” was a trauma response that helped these societies rebuild after the devastating conquests of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Co-sponsored by the AIA, the Departments of History, Religious Studies and Classics, the Center for Judaic Studies, and the School of Anthropology. Reception with light refreshments and snacks with accompany the talk.
Dr. Stephanie Langin-Hooper (Associate Professor and Karl Kilinski II Endowed Chair of Hellenic Visual Culture, Southern Methodist University)
Haury 215, UA Main Campus
March 18, 2025 at 5:00pm