An alternative scenario for imagining the Mediterranean characters who appear in the Bible stands in contrast to U.S. understandings of persons as psychological individuals in a social world in which economic relationships are primary. Biblical characters should be seen in terms of Mediterranean patterns where familism and gender-based identity make kinship the primary social institution. U.S. readers need to be alerted to patterns in Mediterranean communication, which expect males to show emotion freely, which produces texts such as the Bible where authors are more intent on showing how they felt about what was going on than on simply telling in a post-Enlightenment fashion "what was really going on."
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Berman, Ronald1987How Television Sees Its Audience: A Look at the Looking Glass. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Foundation .
2.
Boehm, Christopher1984Blood Revenge: The Anthropology of Feuding in Montenegro and Other Tribal Societies. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
3.
Bouhdiba, A.1977"The Child and the Mother in Arab-Muslim Society," in L. Carl Brown and Norman Itzkowitz (eds.), Psychological Dimensions of Near Eastern Studies. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 126ff.
4.
Callan, Terrence1987"Competition and Boasting: Toward a Psychological Portrait of Paul,"Journal of Religious Studies13:27ff.
5.
Carrol, Michael P.1986The Cult of the Virgin Mary: Psychological Origins. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
6.
1975Économie et parenté: leurs affinités de structure dans le domaine turc et dans le domaine arabe. Paris/ La Haye: Mouton.
7.
Doohan, Helen1984Leadership in Paul. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier.
8.
1989Paul's Vision of Church. Wilmington, DE : Michael Glazier.
Fuchs, Esther1982 "Status and Role of Female Heroines in the Biblical Narrative ," Mankind Quarterly23:149-160.
11.
Geertz, Clifford1976"'From the Native's Point of View': On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding," in Keith H. Basso and Henry A. Selby (eds.), Meaning and Anthropology. Albuquerque, NM : University of New Mexico Press, pp. 221-237.
12.
Gilmore, David D.1982"Anthropology of the Mediterranean Area,"Annual Review of Anthropology11:175-205.
13.
1987"Introduction: The Shame of Dishonor," in David D. Gilmore (ed.), Honor and Shame and the Unity of the Mediterranean (Special Publication of the American Anthropological Association #22). Washington: American Anthropological Association, pp. 2ff.
14.
Gilmore, Margaret M. and David D. Gilmore1979"'Machismo': A Psychodynamic Approach (Spain),"Journal of Psychological Anthropology2:281-300.
15.
Hall, Edward T.1959The Silent Language. Garden City, NY : Doubleday & Co.
16.
1983The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co.
17.
Hanson, K.C.1989"The Herodians and Mediterranean Kinship, Part I: Genealogy and Descent,"Biblical Theology Bulletin19 (1989) 75-84.
18.
Josephus1976The Life; Against Apion, trans. H. St. J. Thackeray. (Loeb Classical Library)Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
19.
Malina, Bruce J.1981The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology . Atlanta, GA: John Knox.
20.
Malina, Bruce J. and Jerome H. Neyrey1989"First Century Personality: Dyadic, not Individual," in Jerome H. Neyrey (ed.) The World of Luke-Acts. Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Press, forthcoming.
21.
Patai, Raphael1983The Arab Mind. Rev. ed. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons.
22.
Philo1937Philo VII, trans. F. H. Colson. (Loeb Classical Library)Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
23.
Pilch, John J.1985"Healing in Mark: A Social Science Analysis,"Biblical Theology Bulletin15:142-150.
Prochaska, James1979Systems of Psychotherapy: A Transtheoretical Analysis . Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.
26.
Raisanen, Heikki1986The Torah and Christ: Essays in German and English on the Problem of the Law in Early Christianity (Suomen Eksegeettisen Seuran Julkaisuja 45)Helsinki: The Finnish Exegetical Society.
27.
Rappaport, Uriel1976"Josephus Ben Mattitiahu [Flavius]: Remarks on His Personality and Deeds,"Ha-Umah15:89-95 (Hebrew, trans. M. Mor).
28.
Saadawi, Nawal El1982The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arabic World . Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
29.
Sabbah, Fatna A.1984Woman in the Muslim Unconscious, trans. Mary Jo Lakeland . New York: Pergamon Press .
30.
Saunders, George R.1981"Men and Women in Southern Europe: A Review of Some Aspects of Cultural Complexity,"Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology4:435-466.
31.
Seelye, H. Ned1985Teaching Culture: Strategies for Intercultural Communication . Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Co.
32.
Selby, Henry1974Zapotec Deviance. Austin, TX : University of Texas Press.
33.
Stannard, David E.1980Shrinking History: On Freud and the Failure of Psychohistory . New York: Oxford University Press .
34.
Stendahl, Krister1963 "The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West," Harvard Theological Review56:199-215.
35.
Strabo1917The Geography of Strabo, trans. H. L. Jones. (Loeb Classical Library)Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
36.
Theissen, Gerd1987Psychological Aspects of Pauline Theology, trans. John P. Galvin. Philadelphia: Fortress .
37.
Theophrastus1935Oeconomica in Aristotle, Metaphysics Books X-XIV, trans. Hugh Tredennick and Oeconomica and Magna Moralia, trans. G. Cyril Armstrong (Loeb Classical Library)Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
38.
Todd, Emmanuel1985The Explanation of Ideology: Family Structures and Social Systems, trans. David Garrioch. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
39.
Tütsch, Hans E.1959Vorderasien im Aufruhr. Zurich , Switzerland: Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
40.
Vanhoye, Albert1986"Personnalité de Paul et exégèse paulinienne," in Albert Vanhoye (ed.), L'apótre Paul: Personnalité, style et conception du ministère. Leuven: Belgium: Leuven University/ Peeters, pp. 3-15.
41.
White, Leland Jennings1985Christ and the Christian Movement: Jesus in the New Testament, the Creeds and Modern Theology. New York : Alba House.
42.
1986"Grid and Group in Matthew's Community: The Righteousness/Honor Code in the Sermon on the Mount."Semeia35:61-90.
