Global Moments in the Levant. A Unifob Global Research Project

Abstract

Global moments are breakthrough events that change people’s lives and their futures. They are developments that typically call for significant adaptation leading to new forms of cooperation or conflict. Few places on earth can rival the Levant (Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria) when it comes to both incubating global moments and having to cope with their consequences. What has made this region a virtual cauldron of global moments is its strategic location astride a vital intercontinental land bridge connecting the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe. This location has made it a crossroads of cultures and civilizations, a corridor of communication and commerce, and a highway of military movement and intrigue since the dawn of settled life. The Global Moments in the Levant research programme seeks to delineate what the salient theoretical and methodological implications are of the fundamental methodological assumption that the insights derived from historical and archaeological study of the past are relevant for understanding the present situation in the region and that, in turn, the findings of ethnographic studies carried out in the present have relevance not only for today, but also for understanding the past.