Vernacular voices [[electronic resource] ] : language and identity in medieval French Jewish communities / / Kirsten A. Fudeman

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910788365503321
• Autore: Fudeman Kirsten Anne
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Philadelphia, : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2010
• ISBN: 0-8122-0535-9
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (269 p.)
• Collana: Jewish culture and contexts
• Disciplina: 492.4/7
• Soggetti: Hebrew language, Medieval - France; Jews - France - History - To 1500; Jews - France - Identity; Jews - France - Languages - History
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- Contents -- Notes on Translations and Transcription and Typographical Conventions -- Abbreviations -- Introduction. The Medieval French Jewish Community in Its Linguistic Context -- Chapter 1. Language and Identity -- Chapter 2. Speech and Silence, Male and Female in Jewish-Christian Relations -- Chapter 3. Texts of Two Colors -- Chapter 4. Hebrew-French Wedding Songs -- Epilogue -- Appendix 1. Hebraico-French Glosses and Texts -- Appendix 2. The Medieval Jewish Wedding Song 'Uri liqra'ti yafah, gentis kallah einoreie -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments
• Sommario/riassunto: A thirteenth-century text purporting to represent a debate between a Jew and a Christian begins with the latter's exposition of the virgin birth, something the Jew finds incomprehensible at the most basic level, for reasons other than theological: "Speak to me in French and explain your words!" he says. "Gloss for me in French what you are saying in Latin!" While the Christian and the Jew of the debate both inhabit the so-called Latin Middle Ages, the Jew is no more comfortable with Latin than the Christian would be with Hebrew. Communication between the two is possible only through the vernacular. In Vernacular Voices, Kirsten Fudeman looks at the roles played by language, and especially medieval French and Hebrew, in shaping identity and culture. ; How did language affect the way Jews thought, how they interacted with one another and with Christians, and who they perceived themselves to be? What circumstances and forces led to the rise of a medieval Jewish tradition in French? Who were the writers, and why did they sometimes choose to write in the vernacular rather than Hebrew? How and in what terms did Jews define their relationship to the larger French-speaking community? Drawing on a variety of texts written in medieval French and Hebrew, including biblical glosses, medical and culinary recipes, incantations, prayers for the dead, wedding songs, and letters, Fudeman challenges readers to open their ears to the everyday voices of medieval French-speaking Jews and to consider French elements in Hebrew manuscripts not as a marginal phenomenon but as reflections of a vibrant and full vernacular existence. Applying analytical strategies from linguistics, literature, and history, she demonstrates that language played a central role in the formation, expression, and maintenance of medieval Jewish identity and that it brought Christians and Jews together even as it set them apart.

Droughts, food, and culture [[electronic resource] ] : ecological change and food security in Africa's later prehistory / / edited by Fekri A. Hassan

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910779958303321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New York, : Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, c2002
• ISBN: 1-280-20034-0; 9786610200344; 0-306-47547-2
• Edizione: [1st ed. 2002.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (368 p.)
• Altri autori (Persone): HassanFekri A. <1943->
• Disciplina: 960/.1
• Soggetti: Prehistoric peoples - Food - Africa; Agriculture, Prehistoric - Africa; Climatic changes - Africa; Paleoclimatology - Africa; Africa Antiquities
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Palaeoclimate, Food and Culture Change in Africa: An Overview -- Climatic Change -- Rapid Holocene Climate Changes in the Eastern Mediterranean -- Climate During the Late Holocene in the Sahara and the Sahel: Evolution and Consequences on Human Settlement -- Late Pleistocene and Holocene Climatic Changes in the Central Sahara. The Case Study of the Southwestern Fezzan, Libya -- Late Holocene Climatic Fluctuations and Historical Records of Famine in Ethiopia -- Environmental and Human Responses to Climatic Events in West and West Central Africa During the Late Holocene -- Plant Cultivation -- Regional Pathways to Agriculture in Northeast Africa -- From Hunters and Gatherers to Food Producers: New Archaeological and Archaeobotanical Evidence from the West African Sahel -- Holocene Climatic Changes in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Spread of Food Production from Southwest Asia to Egypt -- Sustainable Agriculture in a Harsh Environment: An Ethiopian Perspective -- Pastoralism -- The Evidence for the Earliest Livestock in North Africa: or Adventures with Large Bovids, Ovicaprids, Dogs and Pigs -- Cultural Responses to Climatic Changes in North Africa: Beginning and Spread of Pastoralism in the Sahara -- Dry Climatic Events and Cultural Trajectories: Adjusting Middle Holocene Pastoral Economy of the Libyan Sahara -- Food Security in Western and Central Africa During The Late Holocene: The Role of Domestic Stock Keeping, Hunting and Fishing -- Bovines in Egyptian Predynastic and Early Dynastic Iconography -- Conclusion -- Conclusion: Ecological Changes and Food Security in the Later Prehistory of North Africa: Looking Forward.
• Sommario/riassunto: Recent droughts in Africa and elsewhere in the world, from China to Peru, have serious implications for food security and grave consequences for local and international politics. The issues do not just concern the plight of African peoples, but also our global ecological future. Global climatic changes become manifest initially in regions that are marginal or unstable. Africa's Sahel zone is one of the most sensitive climatic regions in the world and the events that have gripped that region beginning in the 1970's were the first indicator of a significant shift in global climatic conditions. This work aims to bring archaeology with the domain on contemporary human affairs and to forge a new methodology for coping with environmental problems from an archaeological perspective. Using the later prehistory of Africa as a comparison, the utility of this methodological strategy in interpreting culture change and assessing long-term response to current, global climatic fluctuations is examined and understood.