In Their Words

Avraham Faust is associate professor of archaeology and director of the Institute of Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University. As part of a new generation of Biblical archaeologists focused on questions of social formation and identity, Faust is using anthropological models and concepts to transform contemporary understandings of ancient Israel. His recent book, Israel’s Ethnogenesis: Settlement, Interaction, Expansion and Resistance (Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2007), deals with the processes that led to Israel’s emergence in Canaan and its ethnic negotiations and boundary maintenance during the Iron Age (see review). This excerpt, taken from the postscript of the book, highlights the ongoing ideological […]