Mothers and Children (ebook)

Argumento de Mothers and Children (ebook)

"[Baumgarten's] scholarship is thorough and meticulous, and her judgment is intelligent and reliable. . . . She has thus made a major contribution in so carefully and convincingly delineating the interconnections of medieval Jewish and Christian family life."--Sarah Lipton, Medieval Review

Winner of the 2008 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Gender Studies, Association for Jewish Studies
Winner of the 2005 Koret Jewish Book Award in History, Koret Foundation
Runner-Up for the 2005 National Jewish Book Award in Women's Studies category, Jewish Book Council

"[T]horoughly researched and lucidly written. . . . Baumgarten has opened an erudite and well-constructed window into an area of Jewish life . . . that has long eluded sustained productive treatment by modern scholarship. She has advanced the field considerably in this estimable work."--Ephraim Kanarfogel, American Historical Review

"Baumgarten's writing of Ashkenaz medieval history as seen through a gender perspective advances a more inclusive reading of Jewish history."--Jewish Book World

"This thoughtful and elegant work is guided by an overriding big idea: with respect to childbirth and nurturing, Jewish parents in medieval France and Germany developed many practices very similar to their Christian neighbors. The strength of Baumgarten's work arises from two achievements. One is her wide and wise reading of the historical literature on gender and society in medieval Europe. The other is her sensitive use of a wide range of original sources, including manuscripts as yet unavailable or little used in Jewish social history. This book will be read with pleasure and benefit by all those interested in medieval and early modern Europe."--Miri Rubin, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London

"In Elisheva Baumgarten's erudite and captivating chronicle of Jewish family life in the Middle Ages, several surprising revelations may cause us to rethink our presumptions about medieval Jewish women. . . . Baumgarten displays not only mastery of Jewish sources, but a considerable familiarity with Christian texts and anthropological literature."--David Wolpe, The Jerusalem Post0Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
Chapter One. Birth 21
Chapter Two. Circumcision and Baptism 55
Chapter Three. Additional Birth Rituals 92
Chapter Four. Maternal Nursing and Wet Nurses: Feeding and Caring for Infants 119
Chapter Five. Parents and Children: Competing Values 154
Conclusions 184
Notes 191
Glossary 241
Bibliography 243
Index 269