Marriage Gifts and Social Change in Ancient Palestine
1200 BCE to 200 CE

In Marriage Gifts and Social Change in Ancient Palestine, T. M. Lemos traces changes in the marriage customs of ancient Palestine over the course of several hundred years. The most important of these changes was a shift in emphasis from bridewealth to dowry, the latter of which clearly predominated in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Whereas previous scholarship has often attributed these shifts to the influence of foreign groups, Lemos connects them instead with a transformation that occurred in Palestine’s social structure during the very same period. In the early Iron Age, Israel was a kinship-based society with a subsistence economy, but as the centuries passed, it became increasingly complex and developed marked divisions between rich and poor. At the same time, the importance of its kinship groups waned greatly. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that draws heavily on anthropological research, cultural theory, archaeological evidence, and historical-critical methods, Lemos posits that shifts in marriage customs were directly related to these wider social changes.

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"This study will have lasting value for not only its conclusions but also the model of interdisciplinary study that it provides. It is of major importance both for its conclusions and for its model of interdisciplinary methodology. The book is well written and will stimulate thinking about the subject at hand. It is both instructive and persuasive. Undoubtedly, it will spark further research into the social world of the family in ancient Israel and the economics of marriage, as well as a better understanding of the correlation between bridewealth and dowry societies and incidences of monogamy, polygyny, and women’s social status. -- Biblical Interpretation Naomi Steinberg, DePaul University

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Product details

• Date Published: January 2014
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9781107643215
• length: 310 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 152 x 18 mm
• weight: 0.46kg
• availability: Available