TY - BOOK ID - 77935417 TI - Inscribing devotion and death : archaeological evidence for Jewish populations of North Africa PY - 2008 SN - 1281936995 9786611936990 9047423844 9789047423843 9004163700 9789004163706 9781281936998 6611936998 PB - Leiden ; Boston : Brill, DB - UniCat KW - Jews KW - Jewish sepulchral monuments KW - Tombs KW - Death KW - Judaism KW - Hellenistic Judaism KW - Judaism, Hellenistic KW - Religions KW - Semites KW - Sepulchral monuments KW - Hebrews KW - Israelites KW - Jewish people KW - Jewry KW - Judaic people KW - Judaists KW - Ethnology KW - Religious adherents KW - History KW - Religious aspects KW - Judaism. KW - Religion KW - Africa, North KW - Barbary States KW - Maghreb KW - Maghrib KW - North Africa KW - Antiquities, Roman. KW - Ethnic relations. KW - Jews - Africa, North - History - To 1500. KW - Jewish sepulchral monuments - Africa, North. KW - Tombs - Africa, North. KW - Death - Religious aspects - Judaism. KW - Judaism - North Africa - History - To 1500. KW - Judaism - History - Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.D. KW - Africa, North - Antiquities, Roman. KW - Africa, North - Ethnic relations. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77935417 AB - Reliance on essentialist or syncretistic models of cultural dynamics has limited past evaluations of ancient Jewish populations. This reexamination of evidence for Jews of North Africa offers an alternative approach. Drawing from methods developed in cultural studies and historical linguistics, this book replaces traditional categories used to examine evidence for early Jewish populations and demonstrates how direct comparison of Jewish material evidence with that of its neighbors allows for a reassessment of what the category of “Jewish” might have meant in different North African locations and periods and, by extension, elsewhere in the Mediterranean. The result is a transformed analysis of Jewish cultural identity that both emphasizes its indebtedness to larger regional contexts and allows for a more informed and complex understanding of Jewish cultural distinctiveness. ER -