caa a22 4500 388073721 CHVBK 20180307125155.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130s1999 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0829320100005901 doi S0829320100005901 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0829320100005901 Genest Olivette Faculty of Theology, Université de Montréal Mythical Roots of Women's Impurity in the Laws of Leviticus: Gendered Mathematics of the Pure and Impure [Elektronische Daten] [Olivette Genest] In the biblical book of Leviticus, the whole life of the Hebrew people is codified under the aspect of purity and impurity, and the reintegration into purity. When read in the light of gender, these prescriptions show that women are twice as impure as men, while their monetary value is half. Using the semiotic approach developed by A. J. Greimas, this study shows that, beneath the religious discourse obscuring this valuation, is an equally gendered ideology. The source of this valuation is not the foundational events which engender mosaic law, but its roots are to be found in deeper mythical ground. For the condition of women to change, the issue of their impurity—inferiority must be treated at this level. A striking example illustrating this argument is the persistence of purification rites related to the menstrual cycle in modern Orthodox Judaism. Over the course of centuries, the code that contains them has become obsolete. Nevertheless, they remain in place through successive reinterpretations, which do not address the real reason for their existence. Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association 1999 Canadian journal of law and society Cambridge University Press 14/01(1999), 9-30 0829-3201 14:01<9 1999 14 CLS https://doi.org/10.1017/S0829320100005901 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0829320100005901 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Genest Olivette Faculty of Theology, Université de Montréal NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Canadian journal of law and society Cambridge University Press 14/01(1999), 9-30 0829-3201 14:01<9 1999 14 CLS CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge