Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe

Marcus (Jewish history and religious studies, Yale U.) provides a new anthropological interpretation of the complex rite of passage by which a Medieval Jewish boy would begin his religious schooling. He unravels the Jewish and Greco-Roman elements; compares contemporary Christian rites and images; and draws on narrative, legal, poetic, ethnographic, and pictorial resources as well as first-hand accounts. Includes 70 pages of back matter. The CiP subtitle reads "Jewish Culture and Acculturation in the Middle Ages." Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.