Abstract
Norma Joseph explores women’s close relationship to food in Judaism revealing their unrecognized productive power, religious centrality and ritual jurisdiction. She reveals the ways in which women’s control of compulsory food gifts establish community and family bonds. Her paper describes a number of situations where this can be illustrated. Firstly, Joseph details specific aspects of the feast of Purim where women choose partners with whom to exchange food and thereby establish intimate relationships of reciprocity and friendship. Then, she views family life, where women’s control of eating and feasting promotes a complex network of relations that aid in the performance and preservation of family, community and the religious tradition itself.
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Joseph, N.B. (2017). Food Gifts (Female Gift Givers): A Taste of Jewishness. In: Joy, M. (eds) Women, Religion, and the Gift. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43189-5_9
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