1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910790522003321

Autore

Baumgarten Elisheva

Titolo

Mothers and children : Jewish family life in medieval Europe / / Elisheva Baumgarten

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, New Jersey : , : Princeton University Press, , 2004

ISBN

1-4008-4926-8

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (295 p.)

Collana

Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World ; ; 51

Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the ancient to the modern world

Disciplina

306.874/3/08992404

Soggetti

Childbirth - Religious aspects - Judaism

Motherhood - Religious aspects - Judaism

Judaism - Customs and practices

Parent and child - Religious aspects - Judaism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Rev. ed. of author's thesis (Ph. D.--ha-Universiṭah ha-ʻIvrit bi-Yerushalayim, 2000) originally titled: Imahot ṿi-yeladim ba-ḥevrah ha-Yehudit bi-Yeme ha-Benayim.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages [243]-268) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Chapter One. Birth -- Chapter Two. Circumcision and Baptism -- Chapter Three. Additional Birth Rituals -- Chapter Four. Maternal Nursing and Wet Nurses: Feeding and Caring for Infants -- Chapter Five. Parents and Children: Competing Values -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

This book presents a synthetic history of the family--the most basic building block of medieval Jewish communities--in Germany and northern France during the High Middle Ages. Concentrating on the special roles of mothers and children, it also advances recent efforts to write a comparative Jewish-Christian social history. Elisheva Baumgarten draws on a rich trove of primary sources to give a full portrait of medieval Jewish family life during the period of childhood from birth to the beginning of formal education at age seven. Illustrating the importance of understanding Jewish practice in the context of Christian society and recognizing the shared foundations in both societies, Baumgarten's examination of Jewish and Christian



practices and attitudes is explicitly comparative. Her analysis is also wideranging, covering nearly every aspect of home life and childrearing, including pregnancy, midwifery, birth and initiation rituals, nursing, sterility, infanticide, remarriage, attitudes toward mothers and fathers, gender hierarchies, divorce, widowhood, early education, and the place of children in the home, synagogue, and community. A richly detailed and deeply researched contribution to our understanding of the relationship between Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors, Mothers and Children provides a key analysis of the history of Jewish families in medieval Ashkenaz.