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1	The History of Niddah in America as Social Drama: Genealogy of a Ritual Practice January 2015 (has links) abstract: Since the 1960’s and 1970’s, ethnographic research on Jewish menstrual rituals known as niddah, Taharat HaMishpacha, or Family Purity has associated their practices with religious behavior. Much of this research organizes around questions of women’s agency within ostensibly patriarchally constructed religious practices that carry the potential to oppress its women practitioners. This premise is built upon a number of implicit assumptions about the history of today’s niddah practices: that niddah is observed exclusively by Orthodox Jews; that increasing rates of niddah observance correlate exclusively with the trend toward stricter observance levels among the Orthodox since the 1960s; and that this increasingly strict observance itself reflects a reactionary trend among the Orthodox community (a.k.a. tradition versus modernity). All these assumptions currently circulate, in various degrees, among the American Jewish lay community and are shared by a significant number of congregational rabbis. Until the 1990s, no history of niddah existed to either support or refute these assumptions. I initially intended that this project would provide future ethnographers with a comprehensive history of niddah in America during the past one and a half centuries. I engaged Victor Turner’s theory of Social Drama as a framework for understanding this history as a socio-cultural process, rather than as a series of less than related events. However, this study h*as resulted in the identification of many more specific assumptions about the decline and revival of niddah observance in the twentieth century, which are not supported by the scant evidence available. These challenged assumptions beg new directions for research; a thorough reworking of the history of niddah in America; and a fresh look at the literature advocating niddah produced in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. This genealogy as Social Drama presents niddah in twentieth century America as undergoing periods of crisis, negotiation, and reintegration. This drama was triggered by late nineteenth century concepts of religion, body, and ritual that undermined and ruptured the integrity of niddah as a bodily religious ritual practice. Niddah’s twentieth century social drama culminated in fresh articulations of a unique Jewish sexuality and Jewish marital ethic. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Religious Studies 2015 Regional studies Family Purity Jewish Menstrual ritual Niddah Social Drama Taharat HaMishacha
2	The role and status of women during the pre-monarchic period (1200-105 BC) Sha, Halima 11 1900 (has links) The lives of women are largely hidden in the Old Testament. New archaeological investigationsinto the households of Iron Age I have brought forward new evidence that sheds light on theauthority status and roles of women in the pre-monarchic tribal community. Conventional theory perceives that women were always oppressed and marginalised under a malevolentsystem of male rule in the Bible. The evidence indicates differently. Investigations in thedomestic sphere, where the household processes were under women’s control and management, imply that women held authority that was equal to male power in the public domain. It has been revealed that women held significant positions in the public sphere as well.This study, therefore, is an investigation into women’s status and the wide-ranging socioeconomicand religious roles they held within a system of male rule that allowed women theirauthority and autonomy in a unique period of Israelite history. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M. Th. (Biblical Archaeology) Women’s authority Patriarchy Pre-monarchic period Syncretic religion Household religion Bêt ēm; Bêt āb Religious duties Farming duties Weaving Food preparation Deborah Achsah Covenant High places Sanctuary Tabernacle Cult corners Motherhood Nazirite vow Jael The mother of Samson Egalitarianism Four-room house Niddah YHWH Baal Baal-berith Shechem Asherah Fertility Figurines Magic healing Archaeology Tabun Looms Kitchen Tell Halif Tell Beit Mirsim Judge Prophetess Wise women Votive Offerings Childbirth Purification Priestess Barren Sacrifices Sacred magic The mother of Micah The book of Judges 220.93 Bible -- Antiquities

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The History of Niddah in America as Social Drama: Genealogy of a Ritual Practice

The role and status of women during the pre-monarchic period (1200-105 BC)