On Jewish folklore / / Raphael Patai.

• Author: Patai, Raphael, 1910-1996.
• Place / Publishing House: Detroit : : Wayne State University Press,, 1983.; ©1983.
• Year of Publication: 1983
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (511 pages) :; illustrations

On Jewish Folklore spans a half-century of scholarly inquiry by the noted anthropologist and biblical scholar Raphael Patai. He essays collected in this volume, some of which are presented for the first time in English translation, provide a rich harvest of Jewish customs and traditional beliefs, gathered from all over the world and from ancient to modern times. Among the subjects Dr. Patai investigated and recorded are the history and oral traditions of the now-vanished Marrano community of Meshhed, Iran; cultural change among the so-called Jewish Indians of Mexico; beliefs and customs in connection with birth, the rainbow, and the color blue; Jewish variants of the widespread custom of earth-eating; and the remarkable parallels between the rituals connected with enthroning a new king as described in the Bible and as practiced among certain African tribes.

Table of Contents

Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Contents; Preface; Abbreviations; I. Introductory and Programmatic; 1. Problems and Tasks of Jewish Folklore and Ethnology; 2. Jewish Folklore and Jewish Tradition; 3. What is Hebrew Mythology?; 4. The Goddess Cult in the Hebrew-Jewish Religion; II. Biblical and Talmudic; 5. The Rainbow; 6. T'khelet-Blue; 7. Some Hebrew Legends of the Sea; 8. The 'Egla 'Arufa, or the Expiation of the Polluted Land; 9. Hebrew Installation Rites; 10. Earth Eating; III. The Marranos of Meshhed; 11. Folk Traditions about the History of the Meshhedi Jews 12. Marriage among the Marranos of Meshhed13. Jewish Burial Customs in Kazvin and Meshhed; 14. Three Meshhed Tales of Mullah Siman-Tov; 15. A Popular "Life of Nadir"; IV. Sephardim and Oriental Jews; 16. Sephardi Folklore; 17. Collectanea; 18. Indulco and Mumia; 19. Exorcism and Xenoglossia among the Safed Kabbalists; 20. The Love Factor in a Hebrew-Arabic Conjuration; V. From the Four Corners; 21. Jewish Birth Customs; VI. On the Peripheries; 22. The Jewish Indians of Mexico; 23. Venta Prieta Revisited; 24. The Chuetas of Majorca; Index