Part 2: "Dehumanization and Rehumanization in Early Judaism: Isaiah and Leviticus”
When and Where
Speakers
Description
Gerstein Distinguished Visiting Professor Lecture Series
Tracy Lemos (Huron University College)
Part 2: "Dehumanization and Rehumanization in Early Judaism: Isaiah and Leviticus”
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022
Time: 4:00pm
*Delivered on Zoom: THIS LINK
Description: This lecture will explore how biblical texts dating to the exilic and postexilic periods responded to different forms of dehumanization. The lecture will examine Mesopotamian sources to demonstrate the use of particular dehumanizing practices and metaphors by the empires of the first millennium BCE, as well as how Israelite/Judean texts both promote and call into question those dehumanizing frameworks. Lemos will argue that the book of Leviticus in fact goes so far as to present coherent and detailed rituals of rehumanization by which the postexilic community could alleviate the effects of imperial violence.
T.M. Lemos (Ph.D., Yale University) is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Huron University College, Ontario, Canada. She is also a member of the graduate school faculty and an affiliate of the Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction at Western University. Her most recent book is titled Violence and Personhood in Ancient Israel and Comparative Contexts (Oxford University Press, 2017). She has coedited three volumes, including the forthcoming Cambridge World History of Genocide, Volume 1: Genocide in the Ancient, Medieval, and Premodern Worlds, and is currently writing her third book, a cross-cultural and transhistorical treatment of dehumanization.