Introduction: Comparing Animal Lexica in Ancient Cultures

Abstract

The present collection of essays goes back to a mini-conference that was organized in October 2017 at the University of Lausanne. The purpose of the conference was to gather scholars working on animal lexica in various fields of the ancient Mediterranean and Western Asian world in order to compare the nature of their sources, the methodological issues they face, and the strategies they have developed in order to address these issues. Overall, animal lexicography is relevant for the study of ancient societies in three main respects. Firstly, the animal lexicon constitutes a significant area in the study of ancient languages and also raises specific linguistic issues, since animal names (or zoonyms), like the names of plants and minerals, often belong to a fairly specialized lexicon. Secondly, the study and identification of zoonyms is also a key element in reconstructing the cultural history of animals in ancient societies. Thirdly, since animal lexica are cultural constructs, they also have the potential to illuminate larger aspects of the anthropology of these societies, such as the relationship between animals and space, the conceptualization of wild versus domestic, as well as the construal of complex relationships between humans and animals (including the metaphorical use of zoonyms for humans), among others. Animal lexica have been the subject of several previous studies, which have tended to develop in two directions mainly. Especially in the context of the Western Asian world, lexical and semantic research on zoonyms usually involves a broad range of comparative materials, although it often focuses on the philological and linguistic levels and does not necessarily discuss the larger historical and cultural implications of the analysis of zoonyms in ancient societies. On the other hand, several studies have addressed zoonyms within the context of a social, cultural and anthropological history of the ancient world, but have usually focused on one cultural area in particular, mainly Greece and Rome, but also Egypt and Western Asia. An approach which integrates these social, cultural and anthropological aspects of zoonyms within a larger comparative perspective remains largely a scholarly desideratum, and the conference was meant to be a first step in that direction.