The Journal of the American Oriental Society articles from October 1998

The Journal of the American Oriental Society archives from October 1998

Matsyendra Samhita, Ascribed to Matsyenranatha: Part I.(Review)
October 1, 1998... Edited by DEBABRATA SENSHARMA. The Asiatic Society, Bibliotheca Indica, no. 138. Calcutta: THE ASIATIC SOCIETY, 1994. Pp. xii + 65 + 138 (in Devanagari numbering). Rs 150 (cloth). Debabrata Sensharma, for decades Professor of Sanskrit at...

The Color of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion, and Conflict.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By SUDHIR KAKAR. Chicago: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 1996. Pp. 231. $42, [pounds]33.50 (cloth); $14.95, [pounds]11.95 (paper). Anyone aware of what goes on in the world today must surely ask: "What makes people savagely attack members of...

The Salistamba Sutra and Its Indian Commentaries.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By JEFFREY D. SCHOENING. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde, vols. 35.1, 35.2. Vienna: ARBEITSKREIS UNIVERSITAT WIEN FUR TIBETISCHE UND BUDDHISTISCHE STUDIEN, 1995. Pp. xx + 770, bibliography, tables, appendices, index. The...

Syllables of Sky: Studies in South Indian Civilization in Honour of Velcheru Narayana Rao.(Review)
October 1, 1998... Edited by David SHULMAN. Delhi: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1996. Pp. xi + 478, plates, index of subjects. $29.95. Those who know David Shulman are well aware that he has found the experience of studying and working with V. Narayana Rao to be...

Disputed Dharmas: Early Buddhist Theories on Existence; An Annotated Translation of the Section on Factors Dissociated from Thought from Sanghabhadra's Nyayanusara.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By COLLETT COX. Studia Philologica Buddhica Monograph Series XI. Tokyo: THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR BUDDHIST STUDIES, 1995. Pp. xxiii, 479. Collett Cox has given us one of those books that every specialist in Indian Buddhism will need...

From Early Vedanta to Kashmir Shaivism: Gaudapada, Bahrtrhari, and Abhinavagupta.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By NATALIA ISAYEVA. SUNY Series in Religious Studies. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS. 1995. Pp. x + 10 + 197. $16.95 (paper). I found this book truly rewarding in only one area: the comparison it attempts of early Vedantic...

Sanskrit-Worterbuch der buddistischen Texte aus Turfan-Funden und der kanonischen Literatur der Sarvastivada-Schule.(Review)
October 1, 1998... Begun by ERNST WALDSCHMIDT, and published by HEINZ BECHERT on behalf of the Academy of Sciences in Gottingen. Part 5: idam/ upa-sam-padita, edited by Michael Schmidt and Jens-Uwe Hartmann in consultation with Georg von Simson; part 6:...

The Ocean of Love: Middle Bengali Sufi Literature and the Fakirs of Bengal.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By DAVID CASHIN. Skrifter utgivna av Foreningen for Orientaliska Studier, no. 17. Stockholm: ASSOCIATION OF ORIENTAL STUDIES, STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY, 1995. Pp. 329. SK 10. The Islam of Bengal, which has the second largest Muslim population...

Theology After Vedanta: An Experiment in Comparative Theology.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By FRANCIS X. CLOONEY, S.J. Towards a Comparative Philosophy of Religions, ed. Frank Reynolds and David Tracy. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 1993. Pp. xviii + 265. Theology after Vedanta presents an ambitious yet carefully...

Bhakti und Bhakta, religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zum Heilsbegriff und zur religiosen Umwelt des Shri Sant Ekanath.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By HUGH VAN SKYHAWK. Beitrage zur Sudasienforschung, 132. Wiesbaden: FRANZ STEINER VERLAG, 1990. Pp. xvi + 382. DM 72 (paper). Under this title the reader will find a running subcommentary to many passages of a Marathi commentary on the...

Gender and Genre in the Folklore of Middle India.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By JOYCE BURKHALTER FLUECKIGER. Ithaca: CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1996. Pp. xxiii + 351, illustrations, maps, index. $49.95 (cloth); $19.95 (paper). The past two decades have seen stunning advances in the study of South Asian folklore....

Buddhism and Language: A Study of Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By JOSE IGNACIO CABEZON. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 1994. Pp. xiii + 299. This immensely ambitious study is somewhat of a disappointment. To be sure, the author is to be commended for having thought of this important...

Living on the Fringe: The Archeology and History of the Negev, Sinai, and Neighboring Regions in Bronze and Iron Ages.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By ISRAEL FINKELSTEIN. Monographs on Mediterranean Archaeology, vol. 6. Sheffield: SHEFFIELD ACADEMIC PRESS, 1995. Pp. 197. [pounds]40, $60. This volume is based on eight articles in various journals from 1984 to 1992 by Israel Finkelstein...

Probative Pontificating in Ugaritic and Biblical Literature: Collected Essays.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By MARVIN H. POPE.(*) Edited by MARK S. SMITH. Ugaritisch-Biblische Literatur, vol. 10. Munster: UGARIT-VERLAG, 1994. Pp. xv + 406. DM 106. Marvin Pope taught at Yale University from 1949 through 1986 and is one of the world's most...

Votive Offerings to Hathor.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By GERALDINE PINCH. Oxford: GRIFFITH INSTITUTE, ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, 1993. Pp. xxv + 408 + 6 plans + 18 figures + 64 plates. [pounds]40, $91.50 (cloth); [pounds]22, $50 (paper). Egyptologists have paid little attention to the objects which...

Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine: An Inquiry into Image and Status.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By TAL ILAN. Translated by Jonathan Price. Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum, vol. 44. Tubingen: J. C. B. MOOR (PAUL SIEBECK), 1995. Pp. xiii + 270. DM 158. Concerns about the utility and reliability of rabbinic literature as a source...

The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land, 1840-1860.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By MOGENS TROLLE LARSEN. New York and London: ROUTLEDGE, 1996. Pp. xiv + 390, illustrations. $35. Mogens Trolle Larsen is an Assyriologist and an historian who, for the past decade, has been investigating the origins of the discipline of...

Les Tombes protohistoriques de Bithnah, Fujairah, Emirats arabes unis.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By PIERRE CORBOUD, ANNE-CATHERINE CASTELLA, ROMAN HAPKA, and PETER IM OBERSTEG. Terra Archaeologica, vol. 1. Mainz am Rhein: PHILIPP VON ZABERN, 1996. Pp. xv + 171, 77 illustrations. DM 120. This handsomely produced volume presents the...

Mitologia y Religion del Oriente Antiguo, I: Egipto-Mesopotamia.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By JESUS LOPEZ and JOAQUIN SANMARTIN. Estudios Orientales, vol. 7. Sabadell, Spain: EDITORIAL AUSA, 1993. Pp. 563. Pt 5096. The book under review is the first volume of the series edited by G. del Olmo Lete, Mitologia y Religion del Oriente...

Settlement Development in the North Jazira, Iraq: A Study of the Archeological Landscape.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By T. J. WILKINSON and D. J. TUCKER. Iraq Archaeological Reports, vol. 3. Warminster: ARIS & PHILLIPS, 1995. Pp. xv + 228 (with plates, figures) + 18 (Arabic) (paper). This workmanlike volume presents the results of four seasons (1986-89)...

Old Babylonian Cylinder Seals from the Hamrin.(Review)
October 1, 1998... Edited by LAMIA AL-GAILANI WERR. Edubba, vol. 2. London: NABU, 1992. Pp. 63, photos, drawings. [pounds]30 (paper). In this volume, five authors publish in hand-drawings and large photos 118 cylinder seals, excavated from two sites in the...

Old Babylonian Cuneiform Texts from the Hamrin Basin: Tell Hadad.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By AHMAD KAMEL MUHAMED. Edubba, vol. 1. London: NABU, 1992. Pp. 69, photos, drawings. [pounds]20 (paper). This very useful book will be welcomed by scholars who study the history of the kingdom of Eshnunna during the Old Babylonian period,...

Funfundzwanzig griechicsche Papyri aus den Sammlungen von Heidelberg, Wien and Kairo (P.Heid. VII).(Review)
October 1, 1998... Edited by AMPHILOCHIOS PAPATHOMAS. Veroffentlichungen aus der Heidelberger Papyrus-Sammlung, n.F., Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. KI., vol. 8. Heidelberg: UNIVERSITATSVERLAG C. WINTER, 1996. Pp. xv + 259, 24 plates. DM...

Der Affe in der altorientalischen Kunst.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By AZAD HAMOTO. Forschungen zur Anthropologie und Religionsgeschichte, vol. 28. Munster: UGARIT VERLA, 1995. Pp. xii + 176 (paper). This well-presented and organized little book has been set in a clear typeface with 155 well-reproduced...

Die altassyrischen Privaturkunden.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By ANDREA MARIA ULSHOFER. Freiburger altorientalische Studien, Beihefte: Altassyrische Texte und Untersuchungen, vol. 4. Stuttgart: FRANZ STEINER VERLAG, 1996. Pp. 503. DM 186. Before the start of the Turkish excavations in 1948, the ruins...

The Aramaic Language in the Archaemenid Period: A Study in Linguistic Variation.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By M. L. FOLMER. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, vol. 68. Leuven: PEETERS PRESS: DEPT. OF ORIENTAL STUDIES, 1995. Pp. xviii + 849. FB 3800. This is a grammar of the Aramaic language as attested by texts dating from the Achaemenid and...

Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By HARRY Y. GAMBLE. New Haven: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1995. Pp. xii + 337. $32.50. In contrast to the countless books devoted to the study of the content of ancient Christian writings, Gamble's study surveys what is termed the...

Studies in the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians, vol. 7: Edith Porada Memorial Volume; vol. 8: Richard F. S. Starr Memorial Volume.(Review)
October 1, 1998... Edited by D. I. OWEN and G. WILHELM. Bethesda, Md.: CDL PRESS, 1995. Pp. viii + 159; viii + 474. $50; $60. Beginning with volume 7, SCCNH became an annual publication edited jointly by D. I. Owen and G. Wilhelm. Volume 7 is offered in honor...

Nag Hammadi Codex VII.(Review)
October 1, 1998... Edited by BIRGER A. PEARSON. The Coptic Gnostic Library; Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, vol. 30. Leiden: E. J. BRILL, 1996. Pp. xxvi + 479. HF1 198, $127.75. The year 1995 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the...

Cassia, cinnamomo, ossidiana: Uomini e merci tra Oceano Indiano e Mediterraneo.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By FEDERICO DE ROMANIS. Saggi di storia antica, vol. 9. Rome: "L'ERMA" DI BRETSCHNEIDER, 1996. Pp. 324, illustrations, 20 plates. This volume is a slightly modified version of de Romanis' Ph.D. dissertation, completed in 1992 at the...

Magic and Divination in Ancient Palestine and Syria.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By ANN JEFFERS. Studies in the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East, vol. 8. Leiden: E. J. BRILL, 1996. Pp. xviii + 276. HF1 146, $86. Ann Jeffers brings nothing that is new to the understanding of magic and divination in ancient...

L'Anatolia occidentale nel medio regno ittita.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By STEFANO DE MARTINO. Eothen. Collana di studi sulle civilta dell'Oriente antico, vol. 5. Florence: IL VANTAGIO EDITORE, 1996. Pp. 123. Hittitologists have long made good use of the prologue to the Telipinu Proclamation to establish the...

The Vow and the "Popular Religious Groups" of Ancient Israel: A Philological and Sociological Inquiry.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By JACQUES BERLINERBLAU. JSOT Supplement Series, vol. 210. Sheffield: SHEFFIELD ACADEMIC PRESS, 1996. Pp. 219. [pounds]39, $58.50. Through the medium of the vow, Berlinerblau investigates ancient Israel's unofficial, popular religion. In...

The Asterisked Materials in the Greek Job.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By PETER JOHN GENTRY. Society of Biblical Literature Septuagint and Cognate Studies Series, vol. 38. Atlanta: SCHOLARS PRESS, 1995. Pp. xxxvii + 559. $49.95 (cloth); $33.95 (paper). This monograph, a slightly revised version of the author's...

Canaanite in the Amarna Tablets: A Linguistic Analysis of the Mixed Dialect used by Scribes from Canaan.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By ANSON F. RAINEY. Four volumes. Handbuch der Orientalistik, erste Abteilung, vol. 21. Leiden: E. J. BRILL 1996. Pp. xxii + 204; xxx + 416; xxii + 280; vi + 198. HFl 604, $390. The title under review here is the result of over twenty years...

Pharao als Gott in den Unterwetlsbuchern des Neuen Reiches.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By FREDRICH ABITZ. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, vol. 146. Freiburg, Switzerland: UNIVERSITATSVERLAG, 1995. Pp. vii + 219. This posthumous publication concludes the life work of Fredrich Abitz, author of five previous volumes covering...

Retrieving the Past: Essays on Archaeological Research and Methodology in Honor of Gus W. Van Beek.(Review)
October 1, 1998... Edited by JOE D. SEGER. Winona Lake, Ind.: EISENBRAUNS, 1996. Pp. xxxi + 312. $39.50. This attractive and well-produced volume serves as a Festschrift for Gus W. Van Beek, long-time Curator for Old World Archaeology at the Smithsonian...

La Tranchee <<Ville Sud>>: Etudes d'architecture domestique.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By OLIVIER CALLOT. Ras Shamra-Ougarit, vol. 10. Paris: EDITIONS RECHERCHE SUR LES CIVILISATIONS, 1994. Pp. 420. FF 373 (paper). This monograph is a re-analysis of a residential area of Ugarit that was excavated in 1959-1960 by C. F. A....

Covenant of Blood: Circumcision and Gender in Rabbinic Judaism.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By LAWRENCE A. HOFFMAN. Chicago: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 1996. Pp. 262. $42.50 (cloth); $16.95 (paper). This volume asks how and why circumcision came to be so central to Judaism. It chronicles the history of this ancient ritual and...

Life in the Ancient Near East: 3100-322 B.C.E.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By DANIEL C. SNELL. New Haven: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1997. Pp. xvii + 270, illustrations. $30. The first paragraph in this book's preface provides the reader with a clear statement of the author's objectives. "This book is addressed first...

Janus Parallelism in the Book of Job.(Review)
October 1, 1998... By SCOTT B. NOEGEL. JSOT Supplement Series, vol. 223. Sheffield: SHEFFIELD ACADEMIC PRESS, 1996. Pp. 223. $45 (cloth). This book, the published version of Noegel's dissertation, is an examination of the phenomenon of Janus (or polysemous)...

"Go to the Land I Will Show You": Studies in Honor of Dwight W. Young.(Review)
October 1, 1998... Edited by JOSEPH COLESON and VICTOR MATTHEWS. Winona Lake, Ind.: EISENBRAUNS, 1996. Pp. xix + 428. $42.50. This volume honoring Dwight W. Young, who taught ancient Near Eastern languages at Brandeis and Cornell Universities, contains...

Itineraires d'Orient: Hommages a Claude Cahen.(Review)
October 1, 1998... Edited by RAOUL CURIEL and RIKA GYSELEN. Res Orientales, vol. 6. Bures-sur-Yvette, France: GROUPE POUR L'ETUDE DE LA CIVILISATION DU MOYEN-ORIENT, 1995. Pp. 442. [Distr. by Peeters Press, Louvain.] This collection of essays was organized to...

Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid, and Mamluk Eras: Proceedings of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd International Colloquium [sic] Organized at the katholieke Universiteit Leuven in May 1992, 1993 and 1994.(Review)
October 1, 1998... Edited by U. VERMEULEN and D. DE SMET. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, vol. 73. Louvain: PEETERS, 1996. Pp. 371. FB 2600. As the title suggests, this book brings together twenty-three articles, in English, French, and German, based on...

The king and I: a Mari king in changing perceptions.
October 1, 1998... The "king" about whom I speak lived almost four thousand years ago, and he was not particularly distinguished. He generated no new paradigms for dominion, imposed no dynastic principles, built no enduring monuments, instigated no new social...

Gandhari and the early Chinese Buddhist translations reconsidered: the case of the Saddharmapundarikasutra.
October 1, 1998... I. THE GANDHARI HYPOTHESIS It has for some time now been assumed that many if not most of the early Chinese Buddhist translations derive from originals written in Northwest Middle Indic. A number of scholars have attempted to show that the...

The emigration of German sinologists 1933-1945: notes on the history and historiography of Chinese studies.
October 1, 1998... I In 1949, Hellmut Wilhelm (1905-90), professor of Chinese history at the University of Washington, began his article "German Sinology Today"(1) with a critical observation: In contrast to the general tendency of resurgence of academic...

Messenger of spring and morality: cuckoo lore in Chinese sources.
October 1, 1998... The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) has long intrigued poets and philosophers as a study in contradictions.(1) Myth and biological reality merge and diverge, forging cuckoo lore that is intriguing, mystifying, and powerful. The cuckoo is the...