I research the economic and social significance of metallurgical symbolism in ritual, myth, and religion. I trace how mines and furnaces were gendered, acting as analogues for maternity and the female body. Situated in historical sound studies and history of technology, I investigate how the sounds of metals and furnaces were conceptually linked to the sounds of female voices, especially during childbirth.
Modern academic disciplines approach the sounds of human mouths from a limited viewpoint: they fo... more Modern academic disciplines approach the sounds of human mouths from a limited viewpoint: they focus on either speech, song, or utterance, and rarely consider the many vocal and oral sounds that fall outside of these categories. Overviewing the colonial history of academic disciplines, I note that scholarship often draws a distinct line between eloquent sounds worthy of study and abject sounds that are 'all too graphic'. This divide between oral eloquence and obscenity/abjection has multiple historical roots, whether European colonial notions of purity and hygiene or Greek sophrosyne (performances of elite masculinity via vocal and emotional restraint). I contrast our recent imperialist history with the highly divergent vocal and oral classifications evidenced in 1st millennium Near Eastern texts. Overviewing the context of Babylonian and Assyrian imperialisms, I analyse three different collections of texts: 1. Mesopotamian magic incantations used to aid childbirth; 2. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft incantations used to overcome and punish sorceresses, 3. Judaean oracles meant to ward off Mesopotamian imperial threat. I note that all three clusters of sources emphasise the wetness of the human mouth as a way of classifying vocal sounds and creating gendered personas of wife, witch, whore, and vanquished enemy. I conclude by comparing the ways in which ancients and moderns deployed the mouth's tactility and vocality to craft imperialist ideology, and question the conventions of relevance foundational to academic disciplines' approaches to the voice.
Perceptions of Pregnancy from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, 2017
This study investigates women's understanding of the institutional and cultural understanding of ... more This study investigates women's understanding of the institutional and cultural understanding of childbirth vocalisations. Through discussions on Mumsnet.org, women trace how family members and medical professionals hear women's sounds during labour as non-human, animalistic, monstrous, and shameful. I emphasise the analytical work women engage in online, and offer reflections on why women's labour vocalisations are culturally interpreted in these ways.
This paper offers a solution to the century-old problem of the ouroboros, a circular serpent with... more This paper offers a solution to the century-old problem of the ouroboros, a circular serpent with its tail in its mouth, first attested in Dynastic Egypt. Scholars have posited that the ouroboros radically changed in symbolic meaning over the four millennia of its usage. I offer an alternate metallurgical reading of the primary sources, revealing consistent references to metal refining (i.e. smelting) that act as metaphors for rebirth, elevation, and salvation. I argue that these metaphors reflect elite notions of temporality and (im)mortality as part of the performance of elite masculinity.
This paper reconsiders the transcendent deity of Greek philosophy, arguing that transcendence was... more This paper reconsiders the transcendent deity of Greek philosophy, arguing that transcendence was a metallurgical concept closely linked to contemporary theories of craftsmanship. I focus on the amulets that were used in magic rituals in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, elucidating the ways in which ritual enactment of the divine processes of cosmic creation formed important socioeconomic concepts of technology and craft.
Modern academic disciplines approach the sounds of human mouths from a limited viewpoint: they fo... more Modern academic disciplines approach the sounds of human mouths from a limited viewpoint: they focus on either speech, song, or utterance, and rarely consider the many vocal and oral sounds that fall outside of these categories. Overviewing the colonial history of academic disciplines, I note that scholarship often draws a distinct line between eloquent sounds worthy of study and abject sounds that are 'all too graphic'. This divide between oral eloquence and obscenity/abjection has multiple historical roots, whether European colonial notions of purity and hygiene or Greek sophrosyne (performances of elite masculinity via vocal and emotional restraint). I contrast our recent imperialist history with the highly divergent vocal and oral classifications evidenced in 1st millennium Near Eastern texts. Overviewing the context of Babylonian and Assyrian imperialisms, I analyse three different collections of texts: 1. Mesopotamian magic incantations used to aid childbirth; 2. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft incantations used to overcome and punish sorceresses, 3. Judaean oracles meant to ward off Mesopotamian imperial threat. I note that all three clusters of sources emphasise the wetness of the human mouth as a way of classifying vocal sounds and creating gendered personas of wife, witch, whore, and vanquished enemy. I conclude by comparing the ways in which ancients and moderns deployed the mouth's tactility and vocality to craft imperialist ideology, and question the conventions of relevance foundational to academic disciplines' approaches to the voice.
Perceptions of Pregnancy from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, 2017
This study investigates women's understanding of the institutional and cultural understanding of ... more This study investigates women's understanding of the institutional and cultural understanding of childbirth vocalisations. Through discussions on Mumsnet.org, women trace how family members and medical professionals hear women's sounds during labour as non-human, animalistic, monstrous, and shameful. I emphasise the analytical work women engage in online, and offer reflections on why women's labour vocalisations are culturally interpreted in these ways.
This paper offers a solution to the century-old problem of the ouroboros, a circular serpent with... more This paper offers a solution to the century-old problem of the ouroboros, a circular serpent with its tail in its mouth, first attested in Dynastic Egypt. Scholars have posited that the ouroboros radically changed in symbolic meaning over the four millennia of its usage. I offer an alternate metallurgical reading of the primary sources, revealing consistent references to metal refining (i.e. smelting) that act as metaphors for rebirth, elevation, and salvation. I argue that these metaphors reflect elite notions of temporality and (im)mortality as part of the performance of elite masculinity.
This paper reconsiders the transcendent deity of Greek philosophy, arguing that transcendence was... more This paper reconsiders the transcendent deity of Greek philosophy, arguing that transcendence was a metallurgical concept closely linked to contemporary theories of craftsmanship. I focus on the amulets that were used in magic rituals in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, elucidating the ways in which ritual enactment of the divine processes of cosmic creation formed important socioeconomic concepts of technology and craft.
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