Abstract The early Hittite New Kingdom was a period of great change. It was during this period that both a remarkable amount of Hurrian textual material entered into the Hittite capital and Hittite kings began having both Hittite and Hurrian names. In this paper I argue that the importation of Hurrian cultural material accompanied the dynastic marriage between the Hittite king and the king of Kizzuwatna. The reception of the material and its lasting effects within the ruling family are to be attributed to the education of the princes within a royal household headed by Hurrian queens.

No abstract is available for this article.

No abstract is available for this article.

Abstract Religious movements and religious ideas have played important roles in the United States almost since the formation of the American republic. From those who sought to abolish slavery in the 19th century to the civil rights and anti‐war movements of the 20th, Christian clergy and laymen claimed religious inspiration for their involvements. There is another side to this story, however. In addition to championing these progressive causes, Christian, largely Protestant, religious ideas have also been central to the various radical right‐wing movements that have surfaced over the course of American history. Or, as the journalist H. L. Mencken once put it in connection with the 1928 presidential election campaign: ‘the Ku Klux Klan is really the secular wing of the Methodist church in the South!’ Xenophobic, Anti‐Catholic, anti‐Semitic, and especially anti‐communist, far‐right organisations in the USA have employed religious sentiments to justify their campaigns against important social changes in public life. We propose to tell their story.

Abstract Ever since their original creation from mortal clay mixed with the flesh and blood of an immortal god, Ancient Mesopotamians had a part of themselves that survived death. We call this death‐surviving part the soul. Ancient Mesopotamians, however, like ancient Greeks, understood this surviving bit as a complex of elements with differing possibilities of survival or, if you will, multiple souls of differing levels of immortality. Of these spiritual essences, one is what we would call a ghost. Unfortunately this was not, like our own ghosts, limited to haunting houses, but fully capable of doing serious harm to the living. Partly this was because the dead, although no longer living, continued to feel hunger and thirst without being able to provide food and drink for themselves, and partly it was because certain bad deaths produced very unhappy ghosts. Ancient Mesopotamians dealt with this problem using a multiplex strategy. Former members of the family received a continual round of offerings as long as the family survived to supply them. If afflicted with spectral attack, there were healing rituals designed to deal with the troublemaker. Finally, special entertainment was provided at festivals of the dead (similar to our Halloween) when ghosts were released from the Netherworld prison to which they were confined for the rest of the year. These festivals also provided an opportunity for last visits with dead family members, consultation with the dead for advice (necromancy) and even witchcraft to revenge oneself on personal enemies. In what follows, I will give a brief overview of the current state of knowledge, with suggestions for further reading.

Abstract Serpent‐handling sects are often portrayed in the media as bizarre Southern cults whose members engage in dangerous primitive rituals. The fact that a religious ritual identified as existing outside the normative boundaries of Christianity, and perhaps religion in general, defines this Christian tradition marks serpent‐handling sects as abnormal or ‘other’. Consequently, scholars investigating why these Christians handle poisonous snakes during religious services must address the boundary between ‘abnormal’ and ‘normal’ religion, the ‘norm’ and the ‘other’. This essay surveys the multi‐disciplinary literature on serpent‐handling sects with a particular eye toward the ways scholars both negotiate and perpetuate this boundary.

No abstract is available for this article.