The Thigh of Its Mother: The Fetus and the Subordinated Subject in the Babylonian Talmud
Modern discussions of abortion in Jewish thought often invoke the Talmudic phrase "ubar yerekh imo," the fetus is the thigh of its mother. This article examines the ten instances in which the phrase first appears in the Babylonian Talmud. I demonstrate that the rabbis of Late Antique Sasan...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2022
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Year: 2022, Volume: 90, Issue: 4, Pages: 1010-1025 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Talmûd bavlî
/ Fetus
/ Pregnant woman
/ Animals
/ Slave woman
/ Body
/ Independence (motif)
/ Ulpianus, Domitius 170-228
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BH Judaism NBE Anthropology NCC Social ethics NCD Political ethics TB Antiquity TE Middle Ages XA Law |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Modern discussions of abortion in Jewish thought often invoke the Talmudic phrase "ubar yerekh imo," the fetus is the thigh of its mother. This article examines the ten instances in which the phrase first appears in the Babylonian Talmud. I demonstrate that the rabbis of Late Antique Sasanian Babylonia deploy the phrase in two specific contexts: discussions of the sanctification, criminalization, or sale of non-human animal fetuses, and discussions of the sale and manumission of the fetuses of enslaved people. Drawing on insights from animal studies and studies of slavery, I argue that this phrase illuminates how the rabbis think with the fetus to value some lives over others in a world reliant on the exploitation of enslaved humans and animals, and compare this approach with that of the Roman jurist Ulpian. Ultimately, I shed light on ancient rabbinic anthropologies of the human body and the body politic. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfad008 |