Beyond Binaries: Towards an Integrative Approach in Ancient Levantine Studies

This essay reflects topics discussed in the articles included in the present volume, aiming at negotiating and dismantling ethnic and disciplinary categories as well as dichotomies such as texts/artifacts, male/female, biblical/extrabiblical, and so on Both emic and scholarly binaries should be replaced by an integrative, "glocal" approach that seeks to identify and remove all kinds of blinders that prevent us from seeing the permanent hybridity of practices, ideas, and artistic expressions in the ancient Levant * This essay is based on the response given to the papers read in the session "Beyond the 'Biblical World' Paradigm: New Approaches to Religion, Mediality, and Gender in the Southern Levant" at the 24th congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) in Zurich, August 11, 2022 I have not faded out the IOSOT context, which can be seen in many references to other presentations Many of them will be published in Arnet, Schmid, and Tiemeyer forthcoming 1 Jokiranta forthcoming