My book on Atra-hasis explores the existential reflections that are compacted in this early masterpiece of Babylonian poetry and political thought. This radical history of the world told from the perspective of the mother goddess conveys the complexity and contradictions that lie at the heart of the human experience. Atra-hasis tells how humanity was created as part of a bargain to resolve the world’s first labor strike, and ends with a depiction of the catastrophic Flood in which humanity was also destroyed. In my book, I discuss such topics labor, inequality, climate change, artificial intelligence, threats to democracy, disability, care work, sexual consent, and more, proposing that we treat Atra-hasis as a foundational document of what I call “pasthumanism.”
Human: Babylonian reflections on labor. Critical Antiquities 3. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2026. Link.