View source for Ama-gi

{{Short description|Sumerian term for "freedom" or "manumission"}}
{{For|similar terms|Amagi (disambiguation){{!}}Amagi}}
{{Italic title}}
[[File:Ama-gi.svg|thumb|{{cuneiform|𒂼𒄄}} ''ama-gi<sub>4</sub>'' written in [[Classical Sumerian|Classical]] [[Sumerian cuneiform]]]]
'''''Ama-gi''''' is a [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] word written {{cuneiform|𒂼𒄄}} ''ama-gi<sub>4</sub>'' or {{cuneiform|𒂼𒅈𒄄}} ''[[wiktionary:𒂼𒅈𒄄#Sumerian|ama-ar-gi<sub>4</sub>]]''. Sumerians used it to refer to release from obligations, debt, slavery, taxation, or punishment. Ama-gi has been regarded as the first known written reference to the concept of [[freedom]], and has been used in modern times as a symbol for [[libertarianism]]. 

== Sumerian use ==
[[File:Foundation stone Louvre AO24414.jpg|thumb|[[Enmetena]]'s foundation stone contains the first known mention of the word Ama-gi]]
Ama-gi has been translated as "freedom", as well as "[[manumission]]", "exemption from debts or obligations",<ref name="Halloran2006">{{cite book|author=John Alan Halloran|title=Sumerian Lexicon: A Dictionary Guide to the Ancient Sumerian Language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2-12mAEACAAJ|year=2006|publisher=David Brown Book Company|isbn=978-0978642907|page=19}}</ref> and "the restoration of persons and property to their original status" including the [[History of debt relief|remission of debts]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhandbookcu00radn|url-access=limited|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199557301|editor=Karen Radner, Eleanor Robson|pages=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordhandbookcu00radn/page/n239 208]–209}}</ref> Other interpretations include a "reversion to a previous state"<ref name="ePSD">{{cite web |url=http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/e324.html |title=amargi |work=Electronic [[Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary]] |access-date=2015-08-03 |archive-date=2022-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220716214918/http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/e324.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and release from debt, slavery, taxation or punishment.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Åke W. Sjöberg |title=The Sumerian Dictionary of the University of Pennsylvania Museum |location=Philadelphia |year=1998 |pages=200–201; 208–210}}</ref>

The word originates from the noun ''ama'' "mother" (sometimes with the [[enclitic]] [[dative case]] marker ''ar''), and the [[present participle]] ''gi<sub>4</sub>'' "return, restore, put back", thus literally meaning "returning to mother".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/16107/Binnenwerk-jagersma.pdf |title=A Descriptive Grammar of Sumerian |access-date=2015-08-03 |archive-date=2020-11-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112021728/https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/16107/Binnenwerk-jagersma.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Assyriologist [[Samuel Noah Kramer]] has identified it as the first known written reference to the concept of [[freedom]]. Referring to its literal meaning "return to the mother", he wrote in 1963 that "we still do not know why this figure of speech came to be used for 'freedom'."<ref>{{cite book|last=Kramer|first=Samuel Noah|title=The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character|url=https://archive.org/details/sumerianstheirhi00samu|url-access=registration|year=1963|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=0226452387|page=[https://archive.org/details/sumerianstheirhi00samu/page/79 79]}}</ref>

The earliest known usage of the word was in the decree of [[Enmetena]] restoring "the child to  his mother and the mother to her child."<ref name="Lemche2014">{{cite book|author=Niels Peter Lemche|author-link=Niels Peter Lemche|title=Biblical Studies and the Failure of History: Changing Perspectives 3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BkqPBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT72|year=2014|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1317544944|pages=72–}}</ref> By the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]], it was used as a legal term for the manumission of individuals.<ref name="Lemche2014"/>

In some cuneiform texts, it is translated by the [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] word ''[[wiktionary:andurārum#Akkadian|andurāru(m)]]'', meaning "freedom", "exemption" and "release from (debt) slavery".<ref name="ePSD"/><ref>{{cite journal |title=''Andurārum'' and ''Mīšarum'': Comments on the Problem of Social Edicts and Their Application in the Ancient near East |author=Niels Peter Lemche |author-link=Niels Peter Lemche |journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies|volume=38 |issue=1 |date=January 1979 |pages=11–22 |doi=10.1086/372688 |jstor=544568|s2cid=162196494 }}</ref><ref name="BlackGeorge2000">{{cite book|author1=Jeremy A. Black|author2=Andrew George|author3=J. N. Postgate|title=A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-qIuVCsRb98C|year=2000|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3447042642|page=17}}</ref>

== Modern libertarian use ==

A number of [[libertarianism|libertarian]] organizations have adopted the [[Cuneiform (script)|cuneiform]] glyph as a symbol claiming it is "the earliest-known written appearance of the word 'freedom' or 'liberty.'"<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.libertyfund.org/our-logo |title=Our Logo {{!}} Liberty Fund |publisher=libertyfund.org |accessdate=2019-05-03 |archive-date=2022-04-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422194104/https://www.libertyfund.org/about/history/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It is used as a logo by the ''Instituto Político para la Libertad'' of [[Peru]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iplperu.com/ |title=Instituto Politico para la Libertad – Inicio |publisher=iplperu.com |accessdate=2009-05-05 |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20090331232130/http://www.iplperu.com/ |archivedate=31 March 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref> the ''New Economic School – [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://nes-g.org/?lang=en |title=New Economic School – Georgia |access-date=2017-04-20 |archive-date=2021-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126114536/https://nes-g.org/?lang=en |url-status=live }}</ref> Libertarian publishing firm [[Liberty Fund]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4002:9ngxrw.2.1 |title=Trademark Electronic Search System |publisher=United States Patent and Trademark Office |accessdate=2012-11-16 |archive-date=2019-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503210103/http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield%3Ff%3Ddoc%26state%3D4002:9ngxrw.2.1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and was the name and logo of the journal of the [[London School of Economics]]' ''[[Friedrich Hayek|Hayek]] Society''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/clubs/hayek/journal.htm |title=Trademark Electronic Search System |publisher=United States Patent and Trademark Office |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610001907/http://personal.lse.ac.uk/LAZANSKI/hayek/journal.htm |archive-date=10 June 2011}}</ref> British musician [[Frank Turner]] and Alberta premier [[Danielle Smith]] have the symbol tattooed on their forearms.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikitionary|𒂼𒄄|𒂼𒅈𒄄|andurārum}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ama-Gi}}
[[Category:Sumerian words and phrases]]
[[Category:Slavery in Asia]]
[[Category:Slavery in antiquity]]
[[Category:Debt bondage]]
[[Category:Debt relief]]