The Economics of Jewish Childhood in Late Antiquity
Jewish children in late antiquity lived in a pre-industrial agrarian society in which the household served as the primary unit of both production and consumption. Children were active participants in the strategies families developed to maintain and care for their members as well as beneficiaries of...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
HUC
2006
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual
Year: 2005, Volume: 76, Pages: 189-233 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | Jewish children in late antiquity lived in a pre-industrial agrarian society in which the household served as the primary unit of both production and consumption. Children were active participants in the strategies families developed to maintain and care for their members as well as beneficiaries of their household economy. The current inquiry seeks to contribute to the study of Jewish children and childhood in late antiquity by exploring numerous ways in which household economics influenced the lives of children and contributed to the construction of ideas of childhood. By analyzing the economic setting, the structure of the average Jewish family, the costs and benefits of rearing children, the beating of children, the distribution of food within the family, child minding, formal education, professional training, marriage and parent-child tensions, I have constructed a model of childhood rooted in household-economics. I compare the features of this model to contemporary features of the Graeco-Roman world in order to ascertain the ways in which Jewish childhood was similar or different to the portrait of childhood which emerges from the evidence left by other groups in the Roman Empire. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual
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