Week 1 discussion

What/where is Mesopotamia, Near East, Middle East?

Problems in, and the politics of, defining a region: mental maps of the Southwest Asia

Scheffler speaks of the Near East being dominated by "foreign" groups from 6th century BC onwards, referring to Greeks, Romans, Sasanian Persians, Arabs etc (258). Should we agree with that? Why are they marked as foreigners? Does the so-called "hellenization" of Mesopotamia mark the end of it? Or is this part of the Grand Historical narrative of Europe that Bahrani writes about, the narrative that would like to detach ancient Mesopotamian past from the contemporanaeus one in order to attach it to the Western past? (Omur. Sept 7, 2006).
- Discussion

What does Bahrani mean when she argues that Mesopotamia is a "discursive formation" (perhaps a "temporal and spatial construct,") "a product of the poetics of a Western historical narrative" or "an area of modern knowledge"? How does archaeology, archaeological practice contribute to such formation? (Omur. Sept 7, 2006)
- Discussion