Human Embeddedness in Relations

Abstract In the entire ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible especially, but also in ancient Greece, the human being is a relational being that is understood from the perspective of its relatedness in its various historical and cultural forms. Body terms, mutual social identity, and collective identity reveal the human being as a creature that is always in relation with others and that gains identity from the structures of the relationships in which it is involved. In this chapter, I try to understand this deeply embedded social anthropology to appreciate the steps taken in these ancient cultures to develop a more autonomous individuation.