Konner, Unsettled: an Anthropology of the Jews

Konner,Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews

Table of Contents

1.Genesis: How the Jews were born in Israel

2.Kingdom come: How the Israelites became a nation

3.Babylon: How the kingdom fell and the culture changed

4.Roman ruin: How the Jews lost their land

5.Diaspora: How the Jews dispersed among their enemies

6.Crossed swords: How Christian power vanquished the Jews

7.Under the minaret: How Islam (partly) tolerated the Jews

8.Spain andbeyond: How the Sephardic Jews found Romance

9. Brightness: How Jewish genius changed and grew

10.Ends of the earth: How Jews thrived in exotic places

11.Yidn: How the Jews helped create modern Europe

12. Mameh-Loshn: How the Ashkenazic Jews spoke and thought

13. Smoke: How the Germans gave the Jews graves in the air

14. Fire: How the Jews fought back

15. The golden land: How the Jews helped make America

16. Haáretz: How the Jews came home

17. Women of valor: How Jewish women broke the patriarchal bonds

18.Conclusion: A drop of red wine: How the Jews will face the future

1. Genesis: How the Jews were born in Israel

Be able to identify the following individuals

Mernetaph

Be able to identify the following spirits?

ElAsherahBaalAstarteReshepHoronShamash

Be able to identify the following terms.

apiruHittitesPhoeniciansPhilistinesTanakh

Be able to answer the following questions

According to the author, the Jews originated as ______. The texts of Genesis and Exodus contain two separate literary streams. The most visible difference between them is ______. The three patriarchs are listed on p. 3. They are ______. What proofs outside of the Bible indicate that these individuals really existed?

What are the earliest non-Biblical references to a people that may be “Hebrews”? What is the earliest non-Biblical reference to “Israel”? What does the reference say about Israel?

There is no evidence, outside the Bible, that the Israelites were ever slaves in Egypt. However, what two processes may have made outsiders become slaves in Egypt?

The Pharaoh Thutmose conquered Megiddo in northern Israel in 1468. What were the two main settlement patterns at the time?

There is one major anthropological transformation that happened independently in China, Egypt, India, and Mexico and that had major impacts on human social life. Which transformation? What are the two institutions that “civilizations” use to control the rural population? What are the two principal uses for which “civilizations” used conquered peoples?

The main danger to Egyptian rule in Palestine were the Hittites invading from the north. During this period, what was “Israel”? What other two European groups came and inserted themselves in Palestine between the Egyptians and the Hittites? What biblical texts probably correspond to the period when Israel was battling against these Europeans?

The text accepts the view that Israel never really invaded and conquered the Holy Land from the outside, What internal processes were happening inside the region among Israelites that may have given rise to accounts of the “conquest” of the land by the Israelites?

The text describes what may have been the farming system of the Israelites in the hills. What were the two major grains, and where was each planted.? What may have been the source of most protein? What were the principal animals raised, and what was their principal utility?

Today’s Jewish ritual calendar commemorating sacred events in the history of Israel may have originally been a series of agro-pastoral rituals used in Canaanite hills, only later transformed into commemorations of sacred historical watersheds. To understand these one has to know what the agricultural cycle was. What was harvested in the late summer and early Fall? What Jewish festival corresponds to that harvest? When did the rains begin? What grain was harvested in March? What grain was harvested in May? What portion of the field did the harvesters have to skip by and not touch? Why? What was harvested in the summer?

Archeology reveals much about the physical context of life in hillside villages of the pre-kingdom period. If you were a villager at the time, what material would you have used to build your house? How many rooms would your house have? What animals would you raise, and where would you keep them at night? What five types of pottery would you have in the house? Your house would also have a large pit. What was its function?

Before the later arrival of offically enforced monotheism, a variety of gods were worshipped in Canaan. Be sure to know the names of the major gods and their attributes. In addition to these publicly worshipped gods, households may have venerated their own local, lesser spirits. What are some of the generic names given to them?

The text briefly recounts Biblical accounts of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon. Be sure to know the role of each. What is the basic difference between the “archeological” model of Israel’s origins and the biblical model? If the archeological model is correct, what may have been the origin of stories of slavery in Egypt and conquest by invading pastoralists?

From what time period do we have the first non-Biblical reference to a king of Israel? What is the reference? What king is mentioned? What city did he make his capital? Why may he have chosen this site as his capital? What does archeology say about the biblical accounts of an invasion, destruction, and abrupt replacement of Canaanite culture with that of Israel?

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Kingdom come: How the Israelites became a nation

Be able to identify the following terms

J, E, P, and D

Be able to identify the following individuals

Samuel King SaulAhab and JezebelElijah and ElishahJosiah

Be able to identify the following spirits

El

Asherah

Baal

Anat

Mot

Yam

Aton

Akhenaton

Ahura Masda

Be able to answer the following questions

What was the major technological revolution that occurred about the year 1000 that had a major impact on human life in the region. The biblical account of the anointing of King Saul by the priest Samuel represents a widespread anthropological pattern in the evolution of human society. What is the process?

At the time of the ascent of David, the Israelites were divided into two major territorial regions. What were their names and where was each located. Why did David never have to contend with the Egyptians? Political power in the region rested on the same four pillars that have been found elsewhere in the rule. What are the four pillars?

What language replaced Hebrew as the spoken language in the region? About when did this occur?

The Bible, focused on Jerusalem in the southern hills and the Davidic kingdom of Judah, treats the northern kingdom of Israel as a secondary actor. In actuality Israel was larger and more prosperous than Judah. Which king of Israel in the North probably had a greater kingdom than either David or Solomon in Jerusalem? Why has his name come down in history so negatively? How did the population and economy of Israel compare with that of Judah. Which Empire was the major adversary of Israel in the North. When the prophets criticized the kings of Israel, they criticized them not only for worshiping other gods but also for ______.

In what year was Israel destroyed? By whom? What happened to its population? What does the archeological record tell us about the impacts that refugees from Israel have on Judah?

In what year was Judah destroyed? By whom? What happened to its population?

What 3 writing systems are mentioned in the text? Which came first? Were they related to each other? What is the difference between pictographs and alphabet. From whom did the Israelites probably get their alphabet?

To what four sources do biblical scholars attribute the authorship of the Torah? Why were different accounts eventually “melded” into the one document we have today? When did the melding probably take place?

A lost “scroll” was found in the Temple which caused King Josiah to institute a religious reform. Scholars believe that that scroll was ______.

Where did Moses’die? Where is his grave located?

Women play a special role in the J account. Familiarize yourself with the unconventional and aggresive deeds of Eve, Rebecca, Yocheved, Miriam, Deborah, Judith.

Some say that the prohibition against idols derives from pastoralism. Why? Five major figures in Hebrew history were pastoralists or shepherds. Which ones?

Some have argued that monotheism – the worship of one all powerful God – is a result of centralized State organization. How do Rome, Greece, Egypt, Babylon, and India contradict this?

There were female deities in ancient religions. What aspect of their position reflected social life at the time? What happened to female deities under Hebrew monotheism?

Be able to identify the following: The supreme God of Canaan. His wife, the fertility goddess. The weather god. The wife / sister of the weather god. The sea god. The god of death.

In which two ancient societies was monotheism tried besides Israel? What happened to it in each?

There is scriptural evidence that many Israelites continued to be polytheists. Give examples from the life of Moses, Elijah, and Josiah. How do the words of Psalm 82 give evidence of remnant polytheism in Hebrew culture.

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Babylon: How the kingdom fell and the culture changed

Be able to identify the following terms

rabbibrittikkun olam

Be able to identify the following places

Migdol

Elephantine

Be able to identify the following individuals

NebuchadnezzarDanielEzraNehemiah

Antiochus IVJosephus

Be able to answer the following questions

The Bible talks of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586. What archeological support is there for this account? What might have been the origin of the Jewish community in the Egyptian city of Alexandria?

What was the major theological impact of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile? What had paved the way for this transition? What was the “second center of religious gravity” that already competed with the Temple. In Deuteronomy Moses’ strongest commands to the Israelites are not to sacrifice in the Temple, but rather to ______.

Both Psalm 137 and Jeremiah write about the Babylonian exile. They differ radically in their sentiments. How?

Did Babylonias permit the Jews in exile to practice their religion? With which Jewish prophet is the phrase “handwriting on the wall” associated?

Which ruler conquered Babylon.? In what year? What special policy did he institute with the Jews in exile? Which biblical book recounts this? In what year was the Temple rebuilt? Many Jews stayed in Babylon. What book tells of religious persecution of those that remained?

Ezra the Scribe became the religious leader and religious reformer in the restored Jerusalem. In what year did he return to Jerusalem from Babylon? What civil leader rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem? Ezra read a “book” of the law of Moses to the people. Which book was it? On what day of the year was it read? No mention, surprisingly, is made of the animal sacrifices made on that day. What does that indicate?

The text gives several explanations of animal sacrifice. One explanation links it to establishing clear cognitive boundaries between different categories. A second explanation says that the function of animal sacrifice in the Temple was to substitute for human sacrifice. What biblical passage seems to refer to that directly? The text also claims a third function: channeling aggressive impulses toward animals rather than toward other human beings.

In what year did Alexander the Great conquer Israel? By then Judaism entailed a mixture of animal sacrifice and Torah study. Earlier conquerors were viewed as intellectually inferior, but Greek science and knowledge surpassed that of the Jews. What impact did this have on Jews? What was the linguistic reaction of Jews to Greek conquest? What is the Sanhedrin, and where did the word come from? Give examples of how material culture adapted to the Greeks.

What does “rabbi” mean?

During the period of Hellenist rule there was tension in Israel between rulers and armies from two different nations of the Hellenist world. Which two nations?

______, who was King of ______, invaded the Temple in the second centure BCE. Hannah’s seven sons were executed because they ______.

The book presents as fact a rather gratuitous hypothesis that the God of Israel “was descended from ______”. It is a common scholarly assertion with which you should be familiar but should take with a grain of salt.

How specifically was the Temple desecrated under the Hellenist king?

There were four major Jewish cultural / religious practices that the Greeks wanted to change and that religious Jews insisted on observing as symbols of their loyalty to Judaism and resistance to foreign intervention. What are the four practices?

What is the biblical basis of the command to circumsize Jewish males? Rabbinic commentary records God as making a threat if the Israelites refused to circumsize themselves. What threat?

Anthropological examples are given from Australia, Africa, and Madagascar to show that ______is practiced in other cultures besides that of the Jews.

Two possible symbolic meanings are given to circumcision. Which?

Know the characters and events involved in the Chanukah story. (p. 57) What miracle is remembered and celebrated on Chanukah?

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Roman ruin: How the Jews lost their land

Be able to identify the following terms

Sadducees

Pharisees

Zealots

Essenes

procurator

Samaritans

pidyon haben

hassid

maggid

Song of Songs

Haggadah

Be able to identify the following places.

Nazareth

Mount Gerizim

Sepphoris

Capernaum

Yavneh

Burnt House

Qumran

Masada

Arch of Titus.

Be able to identify the following individuals

Jannaeus

Herod

Pontius Pilate

Judas the Galileean

Hillel

Shammai

Akiva

Bar Kokhba

Hadrian

Vespasian

Titus

Be able to answer the following questions

How did the Sadducees and Pharisees differ with respect to the Torah and beliefs in life after death?

It is often said that Jews never force others to convert to Judaism. This is not quite true. Give an example of forced conversions that happened in the final century before the Common Era.

Whereas Palestinians kill other Palestinians today, as is true of Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq, Jews are not killing each other in Israel, despite deep divisions (and despite an occasional assassination). This religious prohibition against internecine killing was not always observed. Give an example of a Jewish ruler durng pre-Roman times who did execute fellow Jews. How did he execute them?

Error in the text: “Julius Caesar became emperor…” p. 59. There was no emperor in Rome until Augustus, Caesar’s successor. The wording is incorrect.

Who is King Herod? Was he Jewish? What was his attitude toward Rome? Toward the Jerusalem Temple and its priests?

Under the rule of Roman procurators, the seat of government switched from _____ to _____. What was the major factor which prevented Roman rulers from carrying to an extreme their abuses against the local Jewish population?

What is a revitalization movement, and what form did they take in Israel of this time? Note in the reading the political and religious unrest that was occurring in the region during the period preceding the birth of Christianity.

What was the most common cause of death in crucifixion? How long did it usually take a crucified person to die?

The English name Jesus is a translation of the common Jewish name of ______.

The northern third of Roman ruled Palestine was a region known (even to this day) as Galilee. Many of the towns were non-Jewish – the region was often called Galil hagoyim, Galilee of the Gentiles. Jesus, The founding figure of Christianity grew up in Nazareth. The English name Jesus is a translation of the common Jewish name of ______. What archeological evidence is there that Nazareth was a Jewish rather than a Gentile town. What was the economic base of Nazareth? What were the three major crops and the two major livestock.

The book discusses the origin of Jesus of Nazareth. The English name Jesus is a translation of the common Jewish name of ______. One of the Gospels records a incident in which the boy Jesus impressed the Temple scholars with his knowledge. Some suggest this could have been his “Bar Mitzvah” ceremony. What makes that unlikely? (Hint: do young men have Bar Mitzvah’s behind their parents’ back?)