...This chapter focuses on the function of polity. It looks into genealogical and reconstructive methodology to identify the function of the state, referencing how genealogy could explain how conventions and norms are expected under plausible social conditions. The function ascribed to the state...

... in the spiritual dimension, when is a soul diseased, what is mens sana. Finally, it analyzes the main arguments put forward by Nietzsche in his two books Beyond Good and Evil and The Genealogy of Morals. Nietzsche Friederich Christianity Wagner Richard anti...

... the basic semantic meaning of the word. The chapter first provides an overview of the connection between etymology and genealogy before discussing the prehistory of the Hebrews. It then considers how the concept of prehistory reshaped the way scholars approached the question of Jewish origins by focusing...

... that can be investigated using the tools of history, anthropology, archaeology, or genealogy, but it turns out to have many of the qualities of a religious concept like God. This conclusion reflects on the prospects of whether we can ascertain the origin of the Jews through a search for their ancestors...

...This book examines why tribal genealogies continue to be a central facet of modern Saudi identity despite the erosion of kinship ties resulting from almost 300 years of religious conditioning, and despite the unprecedented material transformation of Saudi society in the oil age. It considers what...

...This chapter examines the compulsion to claim tribal belonging in relation to a set of institutional policies and techniques adopted by the modern Saudi state over the course of the twentieth century. It explains how these policies and techniques combine to produce a genealogical rule of governance...

...This chapter examines a thematic series of sugyot that concern the genealogical division of the Jewish people, arguing that the Babylonian Talmud trains its audience to view the production of genealogical knowledge, and the traditions in which it is transmitted, as manipulated...

... of the various approaches that have been applied to the question, including genealogy, archaeology, psychology, sociology, linguistics, and genetics. It also considers why ascertaining an origin for the Jews has proved problematic, noting the difficulty of defining what we mean by the Jews and the difficulty...

...This chapter examines genealogy as a method that frames the search for Jewish origins in terms of a research for roots, for distant ancestors. The root is one of the oldest and most pervasive metaphors for origin used today; it implies the existence of something flowing from the root into the trunk...

..., and historical reconstructions, but this is the first book to trace the history of the different approaches that have been applied to the question, including genealogy, linguistics, archaeology, psychology, sociology, and genetics. The book shows how this quest has been fraught since its inception with religious...

...Why do tribal genealogies matter in modern-day Saudi Arabia? What compels the strivers and climbers of the new Saudi Arabia to want to prove their authentic descent from one or another prestigious Arabian tribe? This book looks at how genealogy and tribal belonging have informed the lives of past...

... imperial institutions, recycling earlier Ottoman uses of genealogy and religion in the creation of new polities, with the exception of colonized Palestine. These polities, the book contends, should be understood not in terms of colonies and nation-states but as subordinated sovereign local states—localized...