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ṭuppu
ṭuppu
Academics today occupy a precarious position. The voices that glorify
the profession are often drowned out by those that denigratingly claim
its redundancy. However, what is most worrying, is that the larger part
of the population is indifferent to the matter. And who can blame them?
Knowledge for knowledge’s sake does not concern the man in the street.
We, academicians, must plead guilty; all too often do we retreat to our
ivory tower, speaking a language that only our peers can understand. We
may frown upon the laymen with their outdated and false information
about our fields of study, but isn’t it our own fault?
Luckily, the academic world is in a process of rethinking its
position in society. Little by little, we are opening up to the broader
public – if merely for the sake of our own survival. With this blog I
hope to contribute to that development, and I wish to do it in such a
manner that everyone with interest can understand what I am writing.
As Assyriologist I study languages and history of more than 5000
years ago, and even though a lot has changed since then, sometimes I am
struck by the familiarity of things. This blog is about those
familiarities – it is about humanness. Because even though the ancient
Mesopotamians lived in different times and places from ours, they were
people just like us.
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