The Fruit of Her Hands (Paperback)

Sarah Ifft Decker

ISBN 10: 0271093315 / ISBN 13: 9780271093314

Published by Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, 2024

Paperback. In the thriving urban economies of late thirteenth-century Catalonia, Jewish and Christian women labored to support their families and their communities. The Fruit of Her Hands examines how gender, socioeconomic status, and religious identity shaped how these women lived and worked.Sarah Ifft Decker draws on thousands of notarial contracts as well as legal codes, urban ordinances, and Hebrew responsa literature to explore the lived experiences of Jewish and Christian women in the cities of Barcelona, Girona, and Vic between 1250 and 1350. Relying on an expanded definition of womens work that includes the management of household resources as well as wage labor and artisanal production, this study highlights the crucial contributions women made both to their families and to urban economies. Christian women, Ifft Decker finds, were deeply embedded in urban economic life in ways that challenge traditional dichotomies between women in northern and Mediterranean Europe. And while Jewish women typically played a less active role than their Christian counterparts, Ifft Decker shows how, in moments of communal change and crisis, they could and did assume prominent roles in urban economies.Through its attention to the distinct experiences of Jewish and Christian women, The Fruit of Her Hands advances our understanding of Jewish acculturation in the Iberian Peninsula and the shared experiences of women of different faiths. It will be welcomed by specialists in gender studies and religious studies as well as students and scholars of medieval Iberia. Explores how gender, socioeconomic status, and religious identity shaped the lives and work of Jewish and Christian women in medieval Catalan cities. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780271093314

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Fruit of Her Hands (Paperback)
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park
Publication Date: 2024
Binding: Paperback
Condition: new