{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2/context.json","@id":"https://repo.library.stonybrook.edu/cantaloupe/iiif/2/manifest.json","@type":"sc:Manifest","label":"Investigation into the Impacts of Foreign Ruling Elites in Traditional State Societies: The Case of the Kassite State in Babylonia (Iraq)","metadata":[{"label":"dc.description.sponsorship","value":"This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree."},{"label":"dc.format","value":"Monograph"},{"label":"dc.format.medium","value":"Electronic Resource"},{"label":"dc.identifier.uri","value":"http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76966"},{"label":"dc.language.iso","value":"en_US"},{"label":"dc.publisher","value":"The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY."},{"label":"dcterms.abstract","value":"This thesis focuses on the study of foreign ruling minorities in traditional state societies. It investigates how the Kassites, as a foreign ethnic group, were able to control and maintain political power over the Babylonian majority for four centuries. It examines Kassite-Babylonian cultural interaction both on state and domestic levels as reflected in the material cultural and historical records. This study uses two contrasting ethnohistorical models of foreign ruling elites of the Arabs in Spain and the Mamluks in Egypt to evaluate the mechanisms employed by the Kassites to maintain power and the nature of their interaction with the Babylonian majority. Although the Kassites adopted Babylonian culture and traditions, they still maintained their language, names, deities, and social organization. Despite their small number and foreign background, the Kassites' political and socioeconomic practices continued long after their supremacy ended, leaving a long term imprint on Babylonian culture and society. This research shows that the Kassites' military skills combined with the ruralization of Babylonia and the power vacuum at Babylon by the end of the Old Babylonian period paved the way for their take over. Furthermore, it argues that the Kassites were able to maintain political authority and economic power through the establishment of a centralized administration system headed by the foreign monarchy, and the incorporation of rural and urban populations into the state provincial system which allowed them to access additional material resources and manpower. The Kassites appear to have sustained the state apparatus through a centralized taxation system that was imposed on a variety of agricultural products. Taxes were collected from both urban and rural settlements and were used to support the state dependents and public projects. In addition, control over landownership and transfer played a crucial role in enhancing the foreign monarch's authority. Royal land grants and tax exemption served the economic needs of both the recipient and the king. While these grants rendered revenues to the recipients, they combined land and labor and reduced the direct cost to the crown for agriculture, while still generating revenues through taxes in kind and labor services. Ideologically, Kassite royal land grants tied the recipients closely to the king through a patron-client relationship creating a feeling of obligation and loyalty among the recipients to the king. Likewise, control over trade of exotic items, such as lapis lazuli and horses, enabled the state to sustain its political power over a long period of time.  Culturally, the Kassites successfully manipulated both the religion of the majority and their tradition of kingship to legitimize their authority and maintain their rule. While the Kassite monarchs ruled in the name of the Babylonian gods and adopted Babylonian titles, they created a new geopolitical world in Babylonia. Although the Kassites promoted Babylonian religious and royal traditions, they did not imitate traditional Babylonian temples and palaces. However, while early Kassite architecture reflects Kassites' innovation and influence on Babylonian religious and royal architecture, later temples and domestic structures indicate the gradual Kassite adaptation to the local socio-religious and architectural traditions. The Kassite-Babylonian cultural interaction resulted in the continuity of the Babylonian house form and household socioeconomic role both in urban centers and rural settlements. Similarly, funeral practices reflect continuation of the broader Babylonian customs with exception of the phenomenon of the " supine position" , which may indicate a Kassite cultural aspect that was subsequently swamped by mainstream Babylonian mortuary practices. Thus, the Kassites appear to have maintained and legitimized the control of power by manipulating the Babylonian local elite stratum without interfering with the socioeconomic organization of the Babylonian households and local traditions."},{"label":"dcterms.available","value":"2017-09-20T16:51:33Z"},{"label":"dcterms.contributor","value":"Hildebrand, Elisabeth."},{"label":"dcterms.creator","value":"Malko, Helen"},{"label":"dcterms.dateAccepted","value":"2017-09-20T16:51:33Z"},{"label":"dcterms.dateSubmitted","value":"2017-09-20T16:51:33Z"},{"label":"dcterms.description","value":"Department of Anthropology."},{"label":"dcterms.extent","value":"335 pg."},{"label":"dcterms.format","value":"Monograph"},{"label":"dcterms.identifier","value":"http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76966"},{"label":"dcterms.issued","value":"2014-12-01"},{"label":"dcterms.language","value":"en_US"},{"label":"dcterms.provenance","value":"Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-20T16:51:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1\nMalko_grad.sunysb_0771E_12177.pdf: 11997656 bytes, checksum: 29358b65753027a7e3584245406ed101 (MD5)\n  Previous issue date:    1"},{"label":"dcterms.publisher","value":"The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY."},{"label":"dcterms.subject","value":"Archaeology"},{"label":"dcterms.title","value":"Investigation into the Impacts of Foreign Ruling Elites in Traditional State Societies: The Case of the Kassite State in Babylonia (Iraq)"},{"label":"dcterms.type","value":"Dissertation"},{"label":"dc.type","value":"Dissertation"}],"description":"This manifest was generated dynamically","viewingDirection":"left-to-right","sequences":[{"@type":"sc:Sequence","canvases":[{"@id":"https://repo.library.stonybrook.edu/cantaloupe/iiif/2/canvas/page-1.json","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"Page 1","height":1650,"width":1275,"images":[{"@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"https://repo.library.stonybrook.edu/cantaloupe/iiif/2/11%2F65%2F39%2F116539945920727971656364349300164792352/full/full/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/jpeg","height":1650,"width":1275,"service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"https://repo.library.stonybrook.edu/cantaloupe/iiif/2/11%2F65%2F39%2F116539945920727971656364349300164792352","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"on":"https://repo.library.stonybrook.edu/cantaloupe/iiif/2/canvas/page-1.json"}]}]}]}