The border shared by oral-compositional sensibilities and written libretto is beautifully exemplified by the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible. Some of the pieces in this corpus such as Judges 5 are characterized by formulaic language, a mark of oral composition, and imagine settings for extemporaneous performance. The Historical Books offer numerous examples of narrative variants, alternate versions of comparable content, another indication of oral traditional style. On the other hand, the Historical Books frequently allude to written documents and seem to valorize letters, decrees, chronicles, and examples of monumental writing. These books are thus especially informative about attitudes to writing even while preserving and showing appreciation for oral style material. Reflecting upon scribal elites, their relationship to writing, and their attitudes to oral and written media relates to the recollection and creation of history itself and to the processes of cultural construction.
The story of Jacob and Esau is told in the book of Genesis. With his mother's help, Jacob impersonates his hairy older twin by dressing in Esau's clothes and covering his own hands and the nape of his neck with the hairy hide of goats. Fooled by this ruse, their blind father, Isaac, is tricked into giving the younger son the blessing of the firstborn. This is only one of many biblical stories in which hair plays a pivotal role. In recent years, there has been an explosion of scholarly interest in the relationship between culture and the body. Hair plays an integral role in the way we represent and identify ourselves. The way we treat our hair has to do with aesthetics, social structure, religious identity, and a host of other aspects of culture. In ancient Israel, hair signifies important features of identity with respect to gender, ethnicity, and holiness. This book seeks a deeper understanding of Israelite culture as expressed, shaped, and reinforced in images of hair. Among the examples used is the tradition's most famous long-haired hero, Samson. The hair that assures Samson's strength is a common folktale motif, but is also important to his sacred status as a Nazirite. The book examines the meaning of the Nazirite identity null held by Samuel as well as Samson null arguing that long hair is involved in a complex set of cultural assumptions about men, warrior status, and divine election. The book also looks at pictorial and other material evidence. It concludes by examining the troubling texts in which men impose hair cutting or loosening upon women, revealing much about attitudes to women and their place in Israelite culture.
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