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The work of ethnographer and cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz is characterized by “Thick Description,” the practice of developing rich understandings of culture via narrowly defined phenomenon rather than surveys. Thick Description bridges the gap between the culture under investigation and the ethnographer’s audience by tracing the “symbolic web of meaning” that a culture spins in order to understand and express its experience. But can ethnographic method be applied ethically and effectively in the study of the deceased? This article argues that Thick Description is appropriate for working with ancient cultures because it connects objects and texts to their larger cultural environment in the absence of living members. Here, I present a case study of the ancient Mesopotamian Mīs Pȋ (Washing, Purification of the Mouth) ceremony, using Thick Description to unpack elements of the ritual in a way that speaks to the inner-lives of the community for whom the ritual was essential. The life’s work of ethnographer and cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) is characterized by a mode of analysis called Thick Description, which presents complex, contextualized descriptions of narrowly defined objects of empirical study that are written in such a way as to evoke deep insight into the lived realities of the culture at hand. First and perhaps most effectively put forth in his seminal essay “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture” (1973), Geertz’s understanding of the analytic process is one that continues to pique the interest and intellect of scholars worldwide and across disciplines, as evidenced by the numerous books and countless articles dedicated to clarifying, debating, furthering, and otherwise honoring his contributions to the study of humankind. Yet, the flexibility that makes Thick 1 Geertz borrows the term thick description from philosopher Gilbert Ryle, who discusses the notion in two essays, “Thinking and Reflecting” and “The Thinking of Thoughts–What is ‘Le Pensuer’ Doing?,” both available in Ryle 2016. 2 E.g., Inglis 2000; Shweder – Good (eds.) 2005. Description an attractive and applicable interpretive approach is also what makes it difficult to define. The specific analogies that Geertz uses to present Thick Description, however, serve as helpful guides for understanding both the task and the result of interpreting culture; the question remains whether such an interpretive approach, conceived during Geertz’s ethnographic fieldwork in Indonesia, may be applied effectively and ethically to cultures long deceased. This article argues that Geertz’s concept of Thick Description is particularly well suited for those working with ancient cultures because it enables one to analyze objects, including texts, in a way that speaks to the dispositions and worldviews of the individuals and cultures that produced those objects, even in the absence of living members of that culture. The example I use to illustrate my argument is the ancient Mesopotamian ceremony referred to by modern scholars as the Mīs Pî, “Washing of the Mouth” or “Purification of the Mouth,” a 2-day ritual for the induction of idols, for which there is little 6 Balogh, Mīs Pȋ Ceremony & Clifford Geertz’s Thick Description. extant information outside of a few ritual and incantation texts dating to the 8-5 centuries BCE. The framework provided by Thick Description not only allows me to make informed suggestions as to the nature, meaning, and public function of this ritual as expressed through the available texts, it also enables me do so in way that furthers scholarly discussion of topics beyond the ritual, such as the values, paradoxes, inner-lives, and daily workings of the community for whom the ritual was an effective part of their identity – and all within the limitations of the available historical resources. Here, I focus specifically on the relationship between ritual and nature as expressed through the use of reeds and reed implements in the Mīs Pî, a case study that may at first seem too obscure to tell us anything substantial about ancient Mesopotamian religion, but through the lens of Thick Description is able to suggest much about the ‘grand realities’ of the Mesopotamian experience. The task of this article, then, is to present the basic principles that yield Thick Description, and to use the extended example of the Mīs Pî as an illustration as to how those principles shape the analytic process. To perform a complete Thick Description of any object of study would take several volumes and still only scratch the surface of what is possible to say, which is precisely one of Geertz’s major claims. With that in mind, I discuss the Mīs Pî with an eye for how the principles of Thick Description might inform my areas of research and approach to the object of study, as well as how I understand what precisely that object may be. This approach allows me to go into more depth on the analytic process, while also anchoring the discussion in a concrete example. In order to fulfill this task, I first define and illustrate the nuanced relationship between culture, humankind, Thick Description, and the object of study, as Geertz presents it, then I describe the kind of analysis that 3 All of these extant materials are collected, transliterated, and translated in Walker – Dick 2001. 4 Geertz 1973, 22. Thick Description yields: an analysis of the relationship between culture, action, disposition, and worldview, and it is here where I most fully develop my example of the Mīs Pî. Taken together, these two sections demonstrate and underscore that Thick Description is not a method of interpretation, but the end result of the hermeneutical task performed well. This implies that Thick Description may be applied to any number of interpretive situations and is therefore not limited to anthropological or ethnographic fieldwork. Since almost every scholar to engage Geertz’s work has a slightly different understanding of how he defines terms relevant to the discussion at hand, definitions which Geertz expands, contracts, and otherwise alters throughout the course of his fifty-year career, I focus instead on the most illustrative analogy of Geertz’s original essay – the spider web. It is through this analogy that Geertz most clearly and succinctly states both his definition of culture and his understanding of what really constitutes one’s object of study. Yet, Geertz does not elaborate on the analogy of the spider web. As with much of his writing, he leaves the interpretation to his reader. Relating Thick Description & Objects of

The Mesopotamian Mīs Pȋ Ceremony & Clifford Geertz’s Thick Description: Principles for Studying the Cultural Webs of the Deceased