Description
Maturity, Marriage, Motherhood, Mortality is a study of women's life-cycle rituals in ancient Israel, beginning with rituals that marked a girl child's birth and then considering a young woman's coming of age and her betrothal and wedding, as well as rituals undertaken by women during pregnancy and during the days and early years after giving birth, before concluding with a discussion of rituals enacted upon a woman's death.
Table of Contents
Prologue: Of Universals and NotIntroduction: The Nature of Women's Life-Cycle RitualsPart I. A Girl's Birth and Coming into Maturity1. The Birth of a Female Child2. Women's (and Men's) Coming of AgePart II. Marriage3. Israelite Betrothal Rituals4. A Young Woman's WeddingPart III. Motherhood5. Pregnancy and Childbirth6. Naming a Child7. Nursing and Weaning a ChildInterlude8. MenopausePart IV. Mortality9. Ritually Marking a Woman's DeathEpilogue: Of Fragments and (W)holes
