Grounding the anthropology of the Hebrew Bible in embodied practices

Abstract

Despite the extensive research on the body in the Hebrew Bible, embodied practices such as sexuality have yet to be fully incorporated into the construction of its anthropology, and in particular into the discussion of the concept of the self. This article offers a methodological discussion on how to outline an “Anthropology of the Hebrew Bible based on embodied practices”, drawing on sensory studies and cultural anthropology. Two exemplary generative anthropological themes, sexuality and food, are used as case studies. Both link the embodied self to the world, emphasizing the materiality of our human existence and overcoming a dualistic subject-object divide. The final section of the article will outline the implications for the anthropology of the Hebrew Bible, especially for the (un)making of the self as embodied. Identity as a part of personhood has thus to be unfolded as an embodied, material, performative, gendered and relational concept in Hebrew Bible studies and especially in our anthropological research.