Cognitive Perspectives on Israelite Identity

Dr. Nestor is Lecturer in Old Testament studies at Australian Catholic University in Sydney.

• Acknowledgement AbbreviationsIntroduction Chapter OneThe Rise of the Concept of Race Social Evolution and Race Human Evolution and the Concept of Culture(s) Chapter Two Archaeology and Evolution Archaeology and the Question of National Identity: Gustav Kossinna Archaeology and Culture: V. Gordon Childe Archaeology and the Identity of Israel Chapter Three The Emergence of ‘Ethnicity' Primordialism and Instrumentalism in the Study of Ethnicity Chapter Four Cognitive Perspectives on Ethnicity and Identity Ethnicity as Cognition: Pierre Bourdieu Chapter Five The Loss of Innocence New Archaeology and the Ethnic Interpretation of Style Style as Active Comunication The Archaeology of Practice Chapter Six Biblical Archaeology and La Longue Durée Archaeology and Israelite Identity Israel in the Merneptah Stele ‘Israel' as an Essentialist Category of Social Cognition Chapter SevenIsraelite Ethnicity and Biblical Archaeology Ethnic Sentiments in the Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible and the ‘Creation' of Israelite Identity Chapter EightIdeology, Doxa, and the Boundaries of Israelite Identity Common Sense as Social Power Conclusion Bibliography

This is clearly an important text, shrewdly perceptive in content, informative in every detail, and offering a new perspective for sociological investigation of the biblical material that would be of interest to biblical scholars with an interest in ethnicity and Sitz im Leben.