Recovering Women’s Rituals in the Ancient Near East - Equinox Publishing

Julye Bidmead [+–]

Chapman University

Julye Bidmead is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Chapman University in California. She is the author of The Akitu Festival: Religious Continuity and Royal Legitimation in Mesopotamia (2002) and is a senior staff member on the Megiddo Expedition and on the Tel Jezreel Expedition.

Using combined methodologies of feminist ideological criticism, ritual studies, and a re-examination of archaeological remains this book offers reconstructions of women’s rituals and rites of passage in ancient Israel, Canaan, and Mesopotamia during the first millennium BCE.

Series: Worlds of the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean

Table of Contents

Part I: Introduction

Introduction to Women in the Near East [+–]

Using combined methodologies of feminist ideological criticism, ritual studies, and a re-examination of archaeological remains this book offers reconstructions of women’s rituals and rites of passage in ancient Israel, Canaan, and Mesopotamia during the first millennium BCE.

Methodology [+–]

Using combined methodologies of feminist ideological criticism, ritual studies, and a re-examination of archaeological remains this book offers reconstructions of women’s rituals and rites of passage in ancient Israel, Canaan, and Mesopotamia during the first millennium BCE.

Evidence : Textual Sources and Archaeological Remains [+–]

Using combined methodologies of feminist ideological criticism, ritual studies, and a re-examination of archaeological remains this book offers reconstructions of women’s rituals and rites of passage in ancient Israel, Canaan, and Mesopotamia during the first millennium BCE.

Part II: Reconstructing Women’s Rituals

Mesopotamia — i. Birth Rituals ii. Puberty rituals iii. Marriage Rituals iv. Fertility Rituals v. Death rituals vi. Other rites involving women’s bodies vii. Women participating in male rites of passage viii. Summary of women’s rituals in Mesopotamia [+–]

Using combined methodologies of feminist ideological criticism, ritual studies, and a re-examination of archaeological remains this book offers reconstructions of women’s rituals and rites of passage in ancient Israel, Canaan, and Mesopotamia during the first millennium BCE.

Israel and Canaan — i. Birth Rituals ii. Puberty rituals iii. Marriage Rituals iv. Fertility Rituals v. Death rituals vi. Other rites involving women’s bodies vii. Women participating in male rites of passage viii. Summary of women’s rituals in Israel and Canaan [+–]

Using combined methodologies of feminist ideological criticism, ritual studies, and a re-examination of archaeological remains this book offers reconstructions of women’s rituals and rites of passage in ancient Israel, Canaan, and Mesopotamia during the first millennium BCE.

Part III: Summary and Conclusions

Comparative Analysis [+–]

Using combined methodologies of feminist ideological criticism, ritual studies, and a re-examination of archaeological remains this book offers reconstructions of women’s rituals and rites of passage in ancient Israel, Canaan, and Mesopotamia during the first millennium BCE.

End Matter

Bibliography [+–]

Using combined methodologies of feminist ideological criticism, ritual studies, and a re-examination of archaeological remains this book offers reconstructions of women’s rituals and rites of passage in ancient Israel, Canaan, and Mesopotamia during the first millennium BCE.

Appendices [+–]

Using combined methodologies of feminist ideological criticism, ritual studies, and a re-examination of archaeological remains this book offers reconstructions of women’s rituals and rites of passage in ancient Israel, Canaan, and Mesopotamia during the first millennium BCE.