What is the research about?

Dr. Hanna Tervanotko’s project studies rituals women used to respond to sickness in ancient Jewish texts composed between the sixth century BCE and first century CE. These texts, transmitted under different collections, the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, contain references to women’s ritual expertise related to sickness. Women are experts of food preparation, performers who vocalized their community’s sorrow in times of illness through laments, and specialists of the art of blessings and curses which were used to protect people from the illness-spreading spirits. Women also could consult the divine will regarding the future, thus receiving insights into how to deal with sickness. Analyzing these four types of rituals, this project provides new information on women’s ritual expertise, ancient health-care systems, and gender dynamics related to them.