Maturity, Marriage, Motherhood, Mortality: Women's Life-Cycle Rituals in Ancient Israel

Maturity, Marriage, Motherhood, Mortality is a deft study of women's life-cycle rituals in ancient Israel. These include rituals that marked a young woman's coming of age (“maturity”) and her betrothal and wedding (“marriage”); rituals undertaken by women during pregnancy, parturition, and their first days and early years after giving birth (“motherhood”); and rituals that were enacted at the time of a woman's death and in the months and years that followed (“mortality”). The book's aims ar...