Families in Ancient Israel (review)

Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 279 Reviews in and by itself.-, and it is commended for the presentation of a broad spectrum of issues, which should be found productive for the uninitiated reader of modem Hebrew poetry as well as for the adult who seeks to be acquainted with the culture via its collective poetic expression. Zvia Ginor Jewish Theological Seminary New York, NY 10027 zvginor@jtsa.edu FAMILIES IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. By Leo G. Perdue, Joseph Blenkinsopp, John J. Collins, and Carol Meyers. The Family, Religion, and Culture. Pp. xiii + 285. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1997. Paper, $20.00. The good news is that studies in the sociology of family systems are finally informing even the archaeology of the Bible; unfortunately, this volume remains one of the few comprehensive treatments written from this nexus. The reason for the delay is perhaps because biblical studies most often reflect, rather than set, scholarly trends. On the other hand, the task is admittedly bold: attempting to write a living ethnography in connection with lifeless material artifacts (which are rarely, if ever. self-interpreting) or highly-specific written religious tradition. What holds true for the modem linguist who attempts to draw a line between living languages and the ancient dead, namely. the necessary (but always unverifiable) assumption of a Uniformity Principle, likewise must hold true for socio-archaeologists. One is attempting to draw water from shallow cisterns. This volume is one of eight available to date in The Family, Religion, and Culture series edited by Don S. Browning and Ian S. Evison, which aims to analyze modem American families in light of ancient cultures. The series is not on archaeology or biblical studies per se, but invariably brings current research in those closely related fields to bear upon modem families . Happily for most of us, this leads the contributors to discuss their fmdings and conclusions in a highly readable fashion that avoids arcane technical details. The five essays in this book are aligned according to major historical eras: early Israel, the monarchy, and the second temple period. In common are the themes of family/household relationships and daily lifestyles of the Jewish Palestinian community. Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 280 Reviews Though the book advertises itself as the only "comprehensive review in the English language concerning the family in ancient Israel," this should be understood as relating to the diachronic sweep, for a treatment such as Shaye J. D. Cohen's (ed.) The Jewish Family in Antiquity (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993), which centers on the Greco-Roman era, would certainly match in depth and analysis. The first essay, by Carol Meyers, is enjoyable to read yet thoroughly referenced. Her sources hew a wide trail of ethnography ranging from such staples as Mendenhall, Gottwald, and Stager to gender studies and Western anthropologies. Her thesis, pertaining to early Iron Age Israel, is that "the suprahousehold social unit was the mishpachah, for which the descriptive rendering 'protective association of families' is appropriate" (p. 37) for reas9ns of heritage, kinship, and shared subsistence. Meyers describes rural Israelites of the period as "smallholders" (p. 3), that is, stable cultivators occupying small fanned properties. Taking an admittedly functionalist approach to the extended Israelite household (i.e., claiming that families perfonn functions aimed at reaching collective goals), she addresses such behind-the-scenes topics as population density, infant mortality rates, collective sensibilities in kinship societies, and the Iron Age pillared (i.e., four-room) house, superimposing them on a variety of explicitly biblical topics such as the beth ab, inheritance laws, and religious vows. The strength of her work lies in its fresh and clear presentation style and a prompt movement between topics, undergirded by the always promising nature (in this writer's opinion) of sociological interpretation. The weakness is that which haunts all sociological studies of the Bible: that shaky line which is drawn from empirical research of modem cultures which must be assumed to connect, somehow, with the ancient situation. To the degree that essential facets of human nature are constant and universal, the assumption is relatively safe, whereas unforeseen factors should frequently invite the appending of an all things being equal proviso onto one's conclusions. The second...