On this episode of the Peopling the Past podcast, we speak with Dr. Stephanie Budin, an independent scholar researching gender and the lives of women in the ancient Mediterranean, particularly the ancient Near East. She is the author and editor of several books on the position of women in the ancient Mediterranean, including Freewomen, Patriarchal Authority, and the Accusation of Prostitution (2021, Routledge) and the edited volume Women in Antiquity: Real Women Across the Ancient World (2016, Routledge). She is also editor-in-chief of Near Eastern Archaeology.
Listen in, as Dr. Budin speaks to us about the free women of ancient Mesopotamia who were able to escape the bounds of patriarchal society, and were living a sexually liberated life, under their own authority.
Interested in learning more? Check out this related work by Dr. Budin:
Freewomen, Patriarchal Authority, and the Accusation of Prostitution. Routledge Press, London, UK 2021
Looking for a transcript of this episode? Click here.
Additional Materials Related to this Podcast
BOOKS
Gender in the Ancient Near East. Routledge Press, London, UK. Forthcoming
Freewomen, Patriarchal Authority, and the Accusation of Prostitution. Routledge Press, London, UK 2021
Women in Antiquity: Real Women Across the Ancient World. Routledge Press. London, UK. (Co-edited with Jean MacIntosh Turfa) 2016
The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity. CUP. Cambridge, UK. 2008. Near Eastern Archaeology 79.3, special issue on gender archaeology, guest co- edited with Dr. Jennifer Webb of Latrobe University. 2016
ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS
“Prostitution, Religion, and Morality.” In Alison Glazebrook (ed.) A Cultural History of Prostitution, volume 1. Bloomsbury Publishing, London, UK. Forthcoming
“Jar Handles, Nudity, and the Female.” In Budin, Cifarelli, Garcia-Ventura and Millet Albá (eds.) Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of the Second Workshop held in Barcelona, February 1-3 2017. Barcino. Monographica Orientalia, IPOA (Institut del Pròxim Orient Antic) y Universitat de Barcelona Edicions. 2019
“Finding a World of Women: An Introduction to Women’s Studies and Gender Theory in Biblical Archaeology” In A. Yasur-Landau, E. Cline, and Y. M. Rowan (eds.) The Social Archaeology of the Levant: From Prehistory to the Present. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK. 2019
“Prostitución secular y prostitución sagrada en la antigua Mesopotamia.” In Josué J. Justel & Agnès Garcia-Ventura (eds) Las mujeres en el Oriente cuneiforme, Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, 241–266. 2018
“Female Sexuality in Mesopotamia,” “Maternity in Ancient Cyprus,” and
“Maternity in the Bronze Age Aegean.” In S.L. Budin and J.M. Turfa (eds.) Women in Antiquity: Real Women Across the Ancient World. Routledge Press. London, UK, 9–24, 361–374, 595–607. 2016
“The Nude Female in the Southern Levant: A Mixing of Syro-Mesopotamian and Egyptian Iconographies.” In C. Doumet-Serhal (ed.) Cult and Ritual on the Levantine Coast and its Impact on the Eastern Mediterranean Realm. BAAL Hors-Série X. Beirut, 315–335. 2015
“Before Kypris was Aphrodite.” In D. Sugimoto (ed.) Transformation of a Goddess: Ishtar—Astarte—Aphrodite. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 263, 195–215. 2014
“Maternity, Children, and ‘Mother Goddesses’ in Minoan Iconography.” Journal of Prehistoric Religion XXII, 6–38. 2010
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