Ethnicity in the Assyrian Empire. A view from the nisbe, (II): "Assyrians"

Resumen

This is the second of three planned articles on ethnicity in the Assyrian empire, with ethnicity involving the identification of group identities and/or differentiations on the basis of mutual contact, as observed from the protagonists' viewpoint or from that of the surrounding social order, along the Barthian model. On a documentary basis, the Assyrian empire lends itself in a unique manner as observation point for the study of the mechanisms of ethnicity in the ancient Near Eastern context. The article focuses, like the others, on the study of “ethnic-group terms” as identifiers of ethnicity within the Neo-Assyrian period, and specifically on those terms to which the "gentilic" suffix (nisbe) was applied. The particular theme chosen for this article regards the ethnic-group term "Assyrian" (Aššur?yu and other designations) as utilized in both official(royal) inscriptions and "everyday" (or state archival) documents from the Neo-Assyrian empire. The attempt is to bring forth the flexibility, and even at times the ambiguity, of the definition that the Assyrians offeredof themselves in different official or discursive contexts, as well as in the light of diachronical variations and shifts. After a lengthy overview of the sources, it may be concluded that the "everyday" and official documents differ in their definition of "Assyrians", due to chronological, compositional, and contextual factors involving the two textual corpora. Although some ranges of meanings of Aššur?yu or its synonyms show overlaps between them, only the state archival texts indicate "Assyrians" as members of the élite classes of the Empire, entitled to professional and juridical privileges on the basis of the king's favor; whereas the royal inscriptions are unique in pointing out the king's role as rescuer of poor "Assyrians" who had been left stranded or who had lost their possessions abroad. Summing up, a decided pride/relish in inborn/inbred group particularities, combined with a proactive (and ultimately optimistic) impulse to expand "Assyrianness" through the addition of external personnel to the commonwealth, characterize in a singular manner the Assyrians among ancient Mesopotamian peoples.