Social Biographies of the Ancient World. Studying Ahatabu, Jonathan, and Babatha through a Bourdieusian Approach: Towards a New Historiographical <i>Habitus</i>

Abstract This article is the introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Ancient History , “Social Biographies of the Ancient World.” It sketches out an outline of Ancient Near Eastern social structures by utilizing sociological concepts first developed by Pierre Bourdieu. It is our contention that the concepts of field, capital, habitus , and the interplay between theory and practice facilitate the analysis of social structures under first millennium BCE empires even with the limitations of extant evidence, that is, even without ethnographic observation or self-aware personal writings. Bourdieusian Field Theory as a model is flexible and amenable to elaboration with further topics beyond the three case studies represented in this issue. We chose to investigate herein a mortuary stele, a literary figure, and a personal archive as they are three common source types for the ancient worlds of western Asia. We hope this issue will encourage other scholars of the ancient world to join us in utilizing these approaches for social-/micro-history—beyond Marxist or Weberian approaches. Through analysis of an understudied mortuary stele of a relatively unknown woman (Ahatabu), a well-known, supposedly anti-imperialist literary figure (Jonathan), and the archive of an early businesswoman (Babatha), this study presents Bourdieusian approaches to sources with varying known contexts and lifeworlds—emphasizing its applicability for broad usage throughout Ancient Near Eastern history. Finally, we reflect on the ways we found Bourdieu useful for thinking about ancient evidence in the three case studies. After analyzing the similarities and differences in our approaches to and uses of his thought, we propose further ways Bourdieu might provide helpful new trajectories for the study of the Ancient Near East. In particular, we point to the debated issues of family and gender.