Whereas many books look at how women's bodies are represented in different religions and cultures around the world, this work explores the site of a woman's voice and identity, her head. The female head threatens to disrupt the classic gender distinctions that link men to speech, identity, and mind while relegating women to silence, anonymity, and flesh. The contributors to this collection argue that the objectification of women as sexual and reproductive bodies results in their symbolic beheading. Decapitation occurs symbolically in myths as well as in actual practices such as...
Whereas many books look at how women's bodies are represented in different religions and cultures around the world, this work explores the site...
By shifting attention from the image of Jews as a textual community to the ways Jews understand and manage their bodies -- for example, to their concerns with reproduction and sexuality, menstruation and childbirth-- this volume contributes to a revisioning of what Jews and Judaism are and have been. The project of re-membering the Jewish body has both historical and constructive motivations. As a constructive project, this book describes, renews, and participates in the complex and ongoing modern discussion about the nature of Jewish bodies and the place of bodies in Judaism.
By shifting attention from the image of Jews as a textual community to the ways Jews understand and manage their bodies -- for example, to their conce...