The Coyotes Weren’t Kosher: Women’s Role in Preservation of Dietary Tradition in Pioneering Southwest
Women have always played a major role in the practice of Judaism. They have many responsibilities and obligations to fulfill due to of their faith. Yet, they also must raise their families and often work to provide for their family. Overtime, Jewish women have become an example of women’s ability to live very demanding lives and still sustain her religious devotion. Jewish women have had to overcome numerous obstacles in incorporating the changes inherent with ever-evolving life with their static religious duties. Thus was the case for any Jew who chose to move away from their community and start a new life. Many pioneers found it hard to remain practicing Jews when there were no other Jewish people around them. Some observances became difficult to exercise given the surrounding and Jews would sometimes have to compromise their traditions with physical practicality. This led to great personal struggle for women who had always felt that the family’s religious sanctity was her responsibility. But these fascinatingly resourceful and dedicated women found ways to overcome the hindrances that their new home provided and still plant the seeds that would grow into a rich and strong Jewish community regardless of where they lived.
There were many problems that these pioneering Jews experienced when they tried to adhere to Jewish custom in places where keeping kosher was a unpracticed tradition. This was especially true in the founding of the southwest. It became apparent to Jewish mothers that there would be many difficulties ahead of them. In particular, the Jewish religion calls for its member to follow a strict collection of dietary laws. These laws mandated the separation of meat and milk products and the cleansing of all utensils that came into contact with these foods (Siegel 1959). The women were required to follow certain rules in food preparation. It was important that these rules to preparing the food, especially meat, were followed by any devote Jews. These dietary laws are followed not healthiness, but out of holiness. Judaism teaches that man must give reverence for the things that he has, and those that he takes (Stiengroot 1995). This explains the principal of hollowing one’s natural actions to make them holy and is directly illustrated by the way in which a Jewish woman runs her kitchen.
Although she always denied claims of having a distinct Jewish calling, being a second generation German Jewish immigrant, she has always been associated with Jewish New York. Wald has never laid claim to being a crusader for the Jewish people, and yet most of the information published about her comes from the Jewish community trying to sell her as an activist for the Jewish cause. Marjorie N. Feld gives readers a critical look into the life and work of woman dedicated to revealing the similarities of people not their differences. Lillian Wald’s story is an important one because she spent her life working towards a universal vision that would group people together and yet remembered by her difference from other progressive reformers of the time, being Jewish. In this book Feld describes Wald not as person fighting for a particular group, but a person fighting for humanity's equality.
In the begging of this novel Sara Smolinsky, her Parents, and sisters Mashah, Bessie, and Fania, all live together in a small cluttered apartment. Her father, a Hassidic Jew, does not work to provide for his family, but instead preaches his family with strict spiritual guidance by studying the Torah as he pleases. Her father justifies his life style as his belief in ...
In order to obtain religious, social, political, and equality 23 million Jews immigrated to America during the years between 1880 and 1920 (Chametzky, 5). Anzia Yezierska wrote about her experiences as a poor immigrant in her fictional work becoming a voice of the Jewish people in the1920s. She struggled to obtain an education that allowed her to rise above her family’s poverty and gain a measure of autonomy. Rachel and Sara, the female protagonists, mirror the author’s life going from struggling immigrant to college graduate. Yezierska uses her own experiences to portray the Jewish immigrant experience with a woman’s perspective. She successfully gained a commercial following that allowed her to mediate the cultural differences between the mainstream culture and the Jewish people that helped resolve differences between the established Americans and these new immigrants for a time (Ebes...
Neither life nor culture can be sustained without food. On a very basic level, food is fundamentally essential for life, not simply to exist, but also to thrive. A means by which carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, nutrients, and calories are introduced into the body, food is a mechanism of survival. However, on a more abstract level, food is also fundamentally essential for culture by establishing its perimeters and dimensions and in shaping its authenticity and character. Food becomes the carbohydrates and calories that maintain any culture. Food offers a dynamic cross-section of man's tendencies. "Nourishment, a basic biological need," argues anthropologist Sidney Mintz, "becomes something else because we humans transform it symbolically into a system of meaning for much more than itself" (7). By examining food consumption and preparation, much is discoverd regarding the intricacies of culture. The preparation and consumption of food in Puritan society are reflected in Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. Rowlandson's view of food and admissions of hunger in the infancy of her captivity cast a revealing light upon the roots of her conceptions and ideas about food and, more generally, about her culture's conceptions and ideas about food. As the conflict between her soul and her stomach raged over food, Rowlandson's attitudes toward the Native Americans' preparation and consumption of food reflect the socialization of the Puritans to believe that every meal ...
One of the significant features of Jewish history throughout many centuries was migration. From the ancient pre-Roman times to medieval Spain to the present days the Jews were expelled from the countries they populated, were forced out by political, cultural and religious persecution, and sometimes were motivated to leave simply to escape economic hardship and to find better life for themselves and for their children. One of the interesting pages of Jewish history was a massive migration from Eastern Europe to America in the period between 1870 an 1920. In that period more than two million Jews left their homes in Russia, Poland, Galicia, and Romania and came to the New World. The heaviest volume of that wave of Jewish emigration came between 1904 and 1908, when more than 650 thousand Jewish emigrants came to the US. The Eastern European Jews fled from pogroms, religious persecution and economic hardship. We can learn about those times from history text books, but a better way to understand the feelings and thoughts of the struggling emigrants is to learn a story from an insider, who herself lived there and experienced first hand all the challenges and hardships of the emigrants' life. Anzia Yezierska's novel "Bread Givers" is a story that lets the reader to learn about the life of Jewish Emigrants in the early Twentieth Century on Manhattan's lower East Side through the eyes of a poor young Jewish woman who came from Poland and struggled to break out from poverty, from tyrant old traditions of her father, and to find happiness, security, love and understanding in the new country. The book is rich with symbolism. Different characters and situations in the novel symbolize different parts of the emigrants' community and challenges that they faced. The characters range from the father, the symbol of the Old World, to the mother who symbolizes struggles and hopelessness of the women of the Old World, to the sisters and their men, who together represent the choices and opportunities that opened before the young generation of the Jewish emigrants in the New World.
Women had no choice but to follow whatever society told them to because there was no other option for them. Change was very hard for these women due to unexpected demands required from them. They held back every time change came their way, they had to put up with their oppressors because they didn’t have a mind of their own. Both authors described how their society affected them during this historical period.
Throughout our country’s history there have been several groups who have fared less that great. Every minority group was treated unfairly, Indians were uprooted and had no control, I can’t imagine for a second being a soldier in combat, women struggled for basic rights, and many people fell victim to the changing ways of our economy, losing their jobs and fighting to survive. It seems wrong to pick one group over another, as if to say some people who were treated horribly or who faced mounting obstacles didn’t actually have it as bad as another group. But throughout all the years we’ve studied, one group that stood out to me who were dealt a horrible fate were Native Americans living in the west during the 19th century. When Americans began to expand westward, Indians unwillingly had their lives flipped upside down and changed drastically. After years of displacement, they were being forced to live in certain areas and follow certain rules, or risk their lives.
What does it mean to be Jewish or Muslim, or even Christian? What does an understanding of the history that intertwines faith and culture matter to how we live within those religious labels? The Red Tent and Stranger to History, while both using a different perspective, explores the connection between history, culture, and faith traditions, and how we must look at the past to understand our own present and future. Religious experience is distinctly different for women than it is for men, which is evident in Diamant’s portrayal of the silent roles females played in pre-Jewish culture. In contrast, Taseer discusses an experience from a uniquely male view, though both ask the same question: Why do the histories matter?
Throughout American history, women, have been discriminated against and did not receive the same political as well as social rights as men since America was heavily a patriarchal society. Although women were still not on the same level of power as men in America, when women began to actually make social and political advancements in the early 20th century, their newfound liberty exceeded the independence that women of Old World cultures received and this if evident in the book Breadgivers Anna Yezierska. In the early half of the 20th century, a women's role in America was not only controlled by the society, but it was also profoundly defined by her culture. In Breadgivers, the daughter of Jewish immigrants must battle with assimilating to American values that encourage her to be more independent while her traditionally Jewish father tries to control her life in just about every aspect. The book clearly exhibits the results of when a woman assimilates to the American lifestyle as opposed to the women that accepts her more subservient role that other non-American cultures promoted.
Throughout time, weaving, of both basketry and cloth, has had a tremendous impact on Southwestern cultures. Robert Graham, author and Southwest textile expert, has stated, "The most ancient historical and archaeological investigation demonstrate that textile was a highly developed art by the time writing began, and in many cultures before writing began" (Graham 23). Where written records are not available, decorations on structures and pottery show that the production of clothing encompassed a vast part of practically every Southwestern culture. Weaving has played an important role in the economy, the interaction between weavers, and the acknowledgment of community gender roles of Southwestern peoples. Ancient weaving traditions have progressed to ensure their survival, although they may not play the vital role they once did, as can be seen through the examination of ancient textiles. Textile production was a major part of the economy in the early Southwest because it was a tradable commodity and brought wealth and other goods to the communities. Through trading, the communities were able to be complete in the resources that they were lacking and they were able to communicate with other communities. In addition, weaving brought women into the economic sphere and enabled them to have relationships outside the household as traders and in weaving networks. Women played a vital role in all weaving activities and without their efforts textile production would have been an exhausting activity for the men, who had other responsibilities. By observing ancient textiles, specifically the area of clothing production, textile based economies, community gender roles, and...
A house is not a home if no one lives there. During the nineteenth century, the same could be said about a woman concerning her role within both society and marriage. The ideology of the Cult of Domesticity, especially prevalent during the late 1800’s, emphasized the notion that a woman’s role falls within the domestic sphere and that females must act in submission to males. One of the expected jobs of a woman included bearing children, despite the fact that new mothers frequently experienced post-partum depression. If a woman were sterile, her purposefulness diminished. While the Cult of Domesticity intended to create obliging and competent wives, women frequently reported feeling trapped or imprisoned within the home and within societal expectations put forward by husbands, fathers, and brothers.
Throughout life we face many ups and downs that help define us. They mold us into the person we are. Finding our own true identity can be very challenging for some people. This can be because we have other people in our lives controlling us to become the person they want us to be. This is very evident in Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds”. Jing-Me’s mother becomes obsessed with molding her into something she is not; an American prodigy. In “The Things They Carried” Lieutenant Jimmy Cross has trouble finding his own identity. He struggles to lead his men in war due to the fact he his hung up on a girl in New Jersey. In both short stories Jing-Me and Lieutenant Jimmy Cross struggle to find their true identities as someone else takes over their lives. It takes a coming of age event in both instances for them to find themselves.
If other people who have not experienced getting pregnant and delivering a baby already have a hard time complying with their goal to keep fit and lose weight, what more a woman who has become a new mom?
Religion is a key aspect to the culture of today’s society, as well as, for thousands of years prior. One major key distinction remains, most religions are male dominated traditions. Catholic, Islamic, and Jewish philosophy truly exemplify this. However, the importance and major role women play within the realm of different theologies is evident. Mary, the Catholic Virgin Mary, the Jewish Rachel, and Islamic Fatima are three important saints whose influence and importance is recognized. The term saint sometimes may blur between mortal beings and heavenly realms. Nonetheless, the three saints named have significance within their particular religious content. Rachel, Mary and Fatima contrast significantly in legends, descriptions and religious philosophies, but are comparable in devotions and reasons revered.
The role of women in religious scripture dictates an inferior position in society. Beginning with the creation of Adam and then Eve, as his helpmate. Her purpose was that Adam would not be lonely. This origin provides the ground work for inequality of genders on the basis of religious scripture. The roles prescribed determined that women should be in a subordinate position to man. The female role and relationship with God is defined by the various books of the Old and New Testaments, the reported actions of Jesus Christ, and finally the Qur'an.