Publisher's Synopsis
In biblical Hebrew, references to particular parts of the body can designate not the body parts themselves, but rather their function. Since H.W. Wolff's pioneering anthropology of the Old Testament, conceiving of the body in this way has been regarded as "synthetische Korperauffassung" - a synthetic conception of the body. Wolff assumes that synthetic conceptions of the body are inherent to Semitic forms of perception and thought. The contributions of this volume engage with Wolff's theory critically. On the one hand, the analytical usefulness and viability of the theory is investigated through its application to epigraphic ancient Hebrew and the languages of neighbouring cultures (Aramaic, Ugaritic, Akkadian, Hittite, Egyptian, and ancient Greek), revealing convergence and interdependence, but also differences in conceptions of the body. On the other hand, Wolff's theory is challenged, and it is asked whether "synthetische Korperauffassung" truly constitutes a Semitic form of perception and thought. These studies make clear that it is not "synthetische Korperauffassung" that is culture-specific, but rather the particular associations of functions with parts of the body - which represent culture-specific constructions of gestural meaning - and the far more frequent use of nouns for body parts as abstractions when compared to modern languages like German or even classical Arabic.
