Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society?: Reciprocity and Solidarity in Ancient Judaism (review)

Abstract

Were Jews a Society?: Reciprocity and Solidarity in Ancient Judaism, by Seth Schwartz. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2010. 212 pp. $29.95. In spite of its title, this has nothing to do with Goiteihs classic A Society (Berkeley, 1967-1993), which is not even mentioned throughout present book. It is, in fact, an attempt to look closely at society in Palestine in Second Temple and rabbinic periods and ask whether that society conforms to what is commonly expected of a Mediterranean society, and to what is known about Hellenistic and Roman societies outside world. To answer that question, Schwartz begins by explaining his understanding of reciprocity, and especially institutionalized reciprocity, as a means for generating social cohesion, as when, for example, a rich Roman would build a new bathhouse for his hometown and in return would be duly honored by town's people with honorific statues, inscriptions, and pubUc speeches. He also notes that Jews had other means for generating social cohesion, such as stress on common descent and celebration of a set of community-binding holidays. In next chapter, he turns to question of Mediterraneanism, a historiographical, anthropological and even literary construct which sees societies as possessing highly institutionalized mechanisms of reciprocity, and as based on elaborate codes of honor and shame. While doubting validity of this construct, Schwartz nevertheless seeks to test ancient society against it, and to do so he turns, in next three chapters, to Ben Sira (second century BCE), Josephus (first century CE) and Palestinian Talmud (third-fourth centuries CE). In each of these test-cases, a detailed analysis of sources in search of their views of reciprocity, benefaction, social hierarchy, deference, honor, and related cultural values and social realia leads to a broader assessment of how they fit into landscape of ancient society as a whole. Seen through this lens, Ben Sira emerges as quite ambivalent on issues of gift-giving and gift- exchange, money, trade, and honor. Josephus, who is the pivotal figure for concerns of this book (p. 81), sees Roman-style benefactions - such as erection of new theaters - as bad, but is full of praise for more Jewish benefactions, such as distribution of charity to poor (especially in times of famine) and subsidizing of religious activities (such as funding sacrifices owed by nazirites upon completion of their vows). …