Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? Reciprocity and Solidarity in Ancient Judaism. By Seth Schwartz

Abstract

In this engaging study, Seth Schwartz aims to describe how the Jews related to other Mediterranean societies among whom they lived. The opening chapter of the book treats two opposing systems of values: the reciprocity model and the solidarity model. The reciprocity model relies on the redistribution of materials through institutionalized reciprocity, which creates “enduring relationships of dependency, whether between individuals or groups” (8). Schwartz argues that institutionalized reciprocity is the norm for Mediterranean cultures from before the first-century BCE through at least the fourth-century CE. This model involves both inequality and delayed repayment. The solidarity model, by contrast, entails providing for members of one's group simply because they are members of one's group without expectation of repayment. Schwartz argues that the reciprocity model requires “you to love your patrons, clients, kinsmen, and friends, but not all members of your nation,” while the solidarity model requires “you to love all members of your nation whether or not they are personally connected to you” (15). In contrast to other Mediterranean societies, “Jews were heirs to a set of strongly antireciprocal cultural imperatives” (10). He states that the “Bible's elaborate rules are meant to ensure that the charitable donation … never degenerates into a dependency-generating gift” (18). Schwartz, then, reads Jewish culture as a Mediterranean counter-culture.