Women, Power, and Heterarchy in the Neo-Assyrian Palaces

Applying Heterarchy Theory to Ancient Mesopotamian Religions

“…Crumley 1979: 144 One system may contain both hierarchies and heterarchies, which variously appear depending upon the filter applied to the elements of the system.2 Heterarchy theory has thus far been only occasionally applied in Assyriological studies, and mostly in archaeological or anthropological works, such as E. Stone and P. Zimansky's (2004) work on Maškan-šapir and C. Meyers's (2006) study of Iron Age Israelite society, its popularity in other anthropological and archaeological fields likely facilitating its application to ancient material culture remains. In contrast, heterarchy theory has not received much attention in research based on philological evidence, with the most notable (and perhaps first) foray in this direction in Assyriology being S. Svärd's (2012Svärd's ( , 2015 studies of royal women and power relations during the Neo-Assyrian period. She writes: "power is always performed and secured in complex ways that 'hierarchical' just does not describe well enough" (2012: 510), demonstrating how women in the court were able to negotiate and exert power in ways that do not correlate to hierarchical ranks.…”

“…For heterarchy theory to work as an analytical tool, it has to measure something -such as how Svärd (2012Svärd ( , 2015 measured power in relationshipsand one should apply different, ideally equivalent lenses or filters to see how the ranking and relations between comparanda change.14 For Assur, both within and without, many of the same filters apply: economic power, religious qualities, political features, age, scope/size, amenities, geography, demography, significance to the state, importance within the pantheon(s), to suggest a few. These are all observable in the combined textual and archaeological data.…”

Let Praise of Aššur Not Be Forgotten: Temple Heterarchies and the Limits of Royal Patronage in the Neo-Assyrian Empire

“…See Crumley 1979 for the application of this term, which was developed for neurological sciences, to ancient societies. Since then, Svärd (2012 and has applied this term to understand royal women and power dynamics in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Heterarchies are not the only possible framework; future studies may also benefit from "gray space," i.e., the "pseudo-permanent margins" that exist between legality/safety and illegality/death (Yiftachel 2009), which may better relay the persistent precariousness of certain categories of temples.…”