Full Description
This volume is the most recent collective contribution of a group of biblical scholars and archaeologists who are engaged in an ongoing debate about the nature of family and household religion in ancient Israel and its environment. It is intended to complement the volume Household and Family Religion in Antiquity, edited by John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan, which grew out of a conference held at Brown University in 2005 on household and family religion in the ancient Mediterranean world, with an emphasis on cross-cultural comparison. Several meetings after the Brown conference carried the theme forward, and a fourth meeting at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster in April 2009 emphasized theoretical and methodological challenges facing scholars of household and family religion (e.g., the conceptualization of family/household religion, the problem of identifying pertinent artifacts, and the difficulties inherent in using texts together with material evidence). This volume is a direct outgrowth of the Münster meeting.
For both the meeting and the volume, the goal was to bring together a group of specialists in biblical studies, epigraphy, and archaeology who would utilize a variety of humanistic and social-scientific approaches to the data and would also be willing to engage in dialogue and debate; during the conference in Münster, there was much vigorous intellectual engagement. The essays published here reflect the energy of that conference and will contribute, both individually and collectively, to the advancement of our knowledge of Israelite family and household religion.
Contents
Women's Rites of Passage in Ancient Israel: Three Case Studies (Birth, Coming of Age, and Death) Susan Ackerman
The Relevance of Hebrew Name Seals for Reconstructing Judahite and Israelite Family Religion Rainer Albertz
The Household as Sacred Space Beth Alpert Nakhai
Philistine Cult and Household Religion according to the Archaeological Record Anomalies in the Archaeological Record:Evidence for Domestic and Industrial Cults in Central Jordan P. M. Michèle Daviau
The Judean "Pillar-Base Figurines": Mothers or "Mother-Goddesses"? William G. Dever
The House and the World: The Israelite House as a Microcosm Avraham Faust and Shlomo Bunimovitz
Healing Rituals at the Intersection of Family and Society Erhard S. Gerstenberger
Family Religion from a Northern Levantine Perspective Timothy P. Harrison
Horses and Riders and Riders and Horses R. Kletter and K. Saarelainen
Feast Days and Food Ways: Religious Dimensions of Household Life Carol Meyers
The Roles of Kin and Fictive Kin in Biblical Representations of Death Ritual Saul Olyan
A Typology of Iron Age Cult Places Rüdiger Schmitt
The Textual and Sociological Embeddedness of Israelite Family Religion: Who Were the Players? Where Were the Stages? Ziony Zevit
Indexes
