Book details

Book description

The Gift in Antiquity presents a collection of 14 original essays that apply French sociologist Marcel Mauss's notion of gift-giving to the study of antiquity.

• Covers such wide-ranging topics as vows in the Hebrew Bible; ancient Greek wedding gifts; Hellenistic civic practices; Latin literature; Roman and Jewish burial practices; and Jewish and Christian religious giftsOrganizes essays around theoretical concerns rather than chronologically
• Takes an explicitly cross-cultural approach to the study of ancient history

Michael L. Satlow is Professor of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies at Brown University.  He is the author of Creating Judaism: History, Tradition, Practice (2006); Jewish Marriage in Antiquity (2001); Rabbinic Rhetorics of Sexuality (1995) and numerous essays on Jews and Judaism in antiquity.