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

Argues that shifts in the marriage customs of ancient Palestine were directly related to wider social changes.

T. M. Lemos (Author)

9781107643215, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 January 2014

310 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

'This Yale doctoral dissertation is noteworthy for its use of anthropological theory.' International Review of Biblical Studies

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.

Introduction
1. Biblical evidence for marriage gifts
2. Postexilic evidence for marriage gifts
3. Anthropology and the study of marriage gifts
4. The social structure of ancient Israel from Iron I to the Babylonian exile
5. The social structure of Palestine in the Second Temple Period
Final analysis and conclusions
Appendix: marriage gifts among Judeans living in Babylonia during the 6th century BCE.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG], New Testaments [HRCF2]