Conference Schedule:
10 am Welcome-Magda Teter, Wesleyan
University
10:15-11:15
Edward Fram, Ben-Gurion University, Israel,
"Whatever Happened to Men's Ritual Purity?"
Of all the purity laws that existed during the Temple period, only
the laws of ritual purity regarding women still remain in Judaism.
The talk by Edward Fram will outline Jewish laws related to
menstruation and post partum bleeding, and their origins as well as
other forms of ritual purity that existed during the Temple period.
Edward Fram will try to explain why it was only women’s purity laws
that survived.
11:30-12:30 Peggy McCracken, University of Michigan,
"The
Curse of Eve: Purity, Danger, and Women's Blood in Medieval
Europe"?
This talk will address Christian views of menstruation in the Middle
Ages. Peggy McCracken will explore the ways in which bodily fluids
are transformed into each other. Rituals, such as postpartum
purification rituals, provided a space for female friendships. But
blood was also a contested topic, in Jewish-Christian polemics,
women's blood was at times a point of religious argument.
Lunch break 12:30-1:45
2-2:45 Gallery Talk with Hagit Molgan at the Zilkha Gallery,
Wesleyan University
2:
45-3:15 pm Nina Felshin, the curator of the Zilkha Gallery
3: 30 pm -4:30 pm Rahel Wasserfall, Brandeis University, "Jewish Women and Mikveh/Niddah:
A quest for Identity?"
Mikveh is a central commandment for Jewish women. In this talk,
Rahel Wassefall will explore Mikveh’s meanings in different
settings, mainly in Israel. In unpacking its meaning for Jewish
women, the speaker will ask questions of identity, power and the
importance of ritual for contemporary Jewish women.
4:30-5:30
Alma Gottlieb, University of Illinois at
Urban-Champaign, "From Pollution to Bloody Magic: New
Perspectives in the Anthropology of Menstruation”
Are all women "sisters in blood" because of the menstrual
experience; "Menstrual synchrony" means that women who live near
each other often find themselves on the same bleeding schedule. Yet
some healthy women will have 400 periods in their lives while others
will have only a handful. And in some places, menstrual blood is
coded as ritually powerful while elsewhere, it is coded as degrading
and limiting. In this talk, cultural anthropologist Alma Gottlieb
takes a global perspective on menstrual practices. Starting from
the premise that no matter what it means in a given community and to
a given woman, menstruation always means something, she explores the
many meanings that menstrual practices, stories and taboos hold in a
variety of societies around the globe, from New Guinea to New York.