Rituals of Childhood - Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe (Paperback, New Ed)

In medieval times, when a Jewish boy of five began religious schooling, he was carried from home to a teacher and placed on the teacher's lap. He was then asked to recite the Hebrew alphabet and lick honey from the slate on which it was written, to eat magically inscribed cooked peeled eggs and cakes, to recite an incantation against a demon of forgetfulness, and then to go down to the riverbank with the teacher, where he was told that his future study of the Torah, like the rushing river, would never end. This book - Ivan Marcus's erudite and novel interpretation of this rite of passage - presents a new anthropological historical approach to Jewish culture and acculturation in medieval Christian Europe. Marcus traces ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman elements in the rite and then analyzes it from different perspectives, making use of narrative, legal, poetic, ethnographic, and pictorial sources, as well as firsthand accounts. He then describes contemporary medieval Christian images and initiation rites - including the eucharist and the Madonna and child - as contexts within which to understand the ceremony. He is the first to investigate how medieval Jews were aware of, drew upon, and polemically transformed Christian religious symbols into Jewish counterimages in order to affirm the truth of Judaism and to make sense of living as Jews in an intensely Christian culture.

General

Imprint:	Yale University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	October 1998
First published:	October 1998
Authors:	Ivan G. Marcus
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 11mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	208
Edition:	New Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-300-07658-5
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > European history > General Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Ethnic studies > Jewish studies Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Judaism > General Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Worship > General Books > History > European history > General Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Religion & Spirituality > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Worship > General Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Judaism > General
LSN:	0-300-07658-4
Barcode:	9780300076585

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!