ABSTRACT
A marked progress in anthropological research has taken place during the past decades through the substitution of the old method of the informer with direct observation. The concept of total or comprehensive reading of the text must be understood in two ways, both of them equally necessary. The most obvious and simple way is that the document be read in its entirety, a completeness in quantity, necessary to understand why the text was written. Moreover, incoming material is usually of base origin and usually acquires greater prestige by way of the movement to the centre, while outgoing material is highly priced and is intended for consumers of lower condition. In analysing historiographic texts of the Ancient Near East, it proves more useful to take as model the analysis of texts of a simple structure and propagandistic flavour (political addresses, folk literature, mass media, etc.) than of modern literary works, much more refined and often more conscious in structure.
