Women at Work in the Deuteronomistic History - International Voices ...

162 | WOMEN AT WORK IN THE DTRH
instance, in handicraft or administration. Since we do not know, it could be that
we are only overviewing the semantic field of work and not its female laborers. 1
There are several areas where ignorance of female contributions is most
evident, especially because of their importance in the life of any community,
namely, birthing children and nourishing (people and domestic animals), tool
making, textile industry, and some form of bartering and of commercial
activities.
a) midwifery has been and still is an area in which women have traditionally
held a prominent role as health-care workers and conception counselors before
and during pregnancy, through birthing as obstetricians and as neonatologists.
While Genesis and Exodus include some of the most interesting narratives in
which there is a midwife at work, DtrH totally omits mentioning her—in fact,
they are hardly mentioned at all in the rest of the Bible and the Ugaritic
materials as well! Yet, there are plenty of occasions recorded in which men
beget children.
b) nourishing (in all senses) is another area traditionally ascribed to women.
Food and drink preparation is here understood starting from grain and water.
Except for the butchers or cooks and bakers listed in 1 Sam 8:13, they are
notably absent, especially those persons who did the basic tasks needed for
feeding many. Apparently it was mostly women who prepared their most
popular and safest drink—beer. It is strange to me that there is not even a
participle or noun for these professionals, neither male nor female, nor for inns
or taverns, and this in the whole Hebrew Bible.
c) tools in order to build houses, threshing floors, cisterns, terraces, and
other buildings; tools for boats, wine and oil presses, pottery and crafts making,
for plowing and sewing, carving and cutting instruments, processing food
required ability, know-how and often, strength. It is usually assumed most of
this work was made by men and not women. However, at least “domestic
pottery” must have been included among female household tasks. 2 We do not
hear much about this in the DtrH, except for general terms including metal
workers or artisans (see 2 Kgs 24:14, רגסמהו שׁרחה). 3
1 Charts VIII and IX present these terms.
2 Also, domestic grinding, as evidenced in tools found in kitchens (although also in temple
complexes). Jennie Ebeling and Yorke Rowan, “The Archaeology of the Daily Grind: Ground Stone
Tools and Food Production in the Southern Levant,” NEA 67 (2004): 113, suspect gender bias is one
reason of their neglect by most scholars. For a good review of research on ground stone tools and
also on their neglect, Jennie Ebeling, “Archaeological Remains of Everyday Activities: Ground
Stone Tools in Bronze and Iron Age Palestine,” in Life and Culture in the Ancient Near East (ed.
Richard Averbeck, Mark W. Chavalas, & David B. Weisberg. Bethesda: CDL Press, 2003), 311–17
(on state of research), 317–22 (tools uncovered).
3 Actually, the first thing that we hear in DtrH of is their absence: according to 1 Sam 13:19 “no
smith was found throughout the land of Israel.” Another expression is הכאלמ־לכב םכח־לכו
“every (man? person?) wise or skillful in any manner of work” (1 Chr 22:15, JPS). Studying Late