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Signs of virginity : testing virgins and making men in late antiquity / Michael Rosenberg.

Oxford Scholarship Online: Religion Available online

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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Rosenberg, Micha'el, 1978- author.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Virginity--Religious aspects--Judaism--History of doctrines.
Virginity.
Sex crimes--Religious aspects--Judaism--History of doctrines.
Sex crimes.
Masculinity--Religious aspects--Judaism--History of doctrines.
Masculinity.
Virginity--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600.
Sex crimes--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600.
Masculinity--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600.
Physical Description:
1 online resource (329 pages)
Place of Publication:
New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018.
Summary:
'Signs of Virginity' examines virginity testing in Judaism and early Christianity, and the relationship of these tests to male sexual violence. Rosenberg points to two authors - Augustine of Hippo and the rabbinic collective that produced the Babylonian Talmud - who construct alternative models that, if taken seriously, would utterly reverse cultural ideals of masculinity, encouraging men to be gentle, rather than brutal, in their sexual behaviour.
Contents:
Introduction: Defining virginity, making men
Virginity and violence in cross-cultural perspective
Bloodied sheets: the biblical nuptial bed as rape scene
"Trustworthy women" and other witnesses: tweaking Deuteronomy in pre-rabbinic and early rabbinic Judaism
Doubts and faith: possible alternatives in three first century Jewish authors
Struck by wood, struck by God: virginity beyond/despite anatomy
Open doors and accused brides: subjectivity and a new standard for virginity testing in rabbinic Babylonia
Impure nuptials and sex as work: the Bavli's attempted divorce of virginity from violence
(De)mythologizing the hymen: Augustine, the Bavli, and the rejection of force.
Notes:
Previously issued in print: 2018.
OUP approval plan 2018
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on print version record.
ISBN:
0-19-084591-0
0-19-084592-9
0-19-084590-2

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