Ethno-reading and the Disclosure of the Karaite Female Body

Because of their political stance which rejected oral tradition, Karaites put their efforts into consolidating the written canon, and as a result did not develop an oral code of conduct. Nevertheless, my ethnographic research with the San Francisco Bay Area Karaites demonstrates that the unofficial, often unacknowledged discourse of mother/daughter teaching—best reflected in women's narratives about their first menstrual period—is a central one in the culture. This article argues that maternal reproduction is inseparable from the female conception of knowledge as both are exercised in the female domain around the body, and both are informed and shaped by the textual, patriarchal authority of the Bible.