Giants in the Bible and the Shanhaijing: A Study in Comparative Anthropology

Abstract

A study of the perspectives on giants in the Bible and the Shanhaijing. The two perspectives are organized by different hierarchies of space and time and distinctive ideologies, but similarly privilege the observer ― Chinese or Israelite ― in the order of things. Both perspectives are arguably shaped by a shared ecological feature: megalithic structures in the landscape that serve as a visual reminder of the presence of giants in the periphery or the past.