{"product_id":"the-grammar-of-sacrifice-naphtali-s-meshel-9780198705567","title":"The Grammar of Sacrifice: A Generativist Study of the Israelite Sacrificial System in the Priestly Writings with the Grammar of \u0026#931;","description":"The notion that rituals, like natural languages, are governed by implicit, rigorous rules led scholars in the last century, harking back to the early Indian grammarian Patanjali, to speak of a \"grammar\", or \"syntax\", of ritual, particularly sacrificial ritual. Despite insightful examples of ritual complexes that follow hierarchical rules akin to syntactic structures in natural languages, and ambitious attempts to imagine a Universal Grammar of sacrificial ritual, no single, comprehensive \"grammar\" of any ritual system has yet been composed. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis book offers the first such \"grammar.\" Centering on Σ-the idealized sacrificial system represented in the Priestly laws in the Pentateuch--it demonstrates that a ritual system is describable in terms of a set of concise, unconsciously internalized, generative rules, analogous to the grammar of a natural language. Despite far-reaching diachronic developments, reflected in Second Temple and rabbinic literature, the ancient Israelite sacrificial system retained a highly unchangeable \"grammar,\" which is abstracted and analysed in a formulaic manner. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe limits of the analogy to linguistics are stressed: rather than categories borrowed from linguistics, such as syntax and morphology, the operative categories of Σ are abstracted inductively from the ritual texts: \u003cem\u003ezoemics\u003c\/em\u003e--the study of the classes of animals used in ritual sacrifice; \u003cem\u003ejugation\u003c\/em\u003e-the rules governing the joining of animal and non-animal materials; \u003cem\u003ehierarchics\u003c\/em\u003e-the tiered structuring of sacrificial sequences; and \u003cem\u003epraxemics\u003c\/em\u003e--the analysis of the physical activity comprising sacrificial procedures. Finally, the problem of \u003cem\u003emeaning\u003c\/em\u003e in non-linguistic ritual systems is addressed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Naphtali S. Meshel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0198705565\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780198705567\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/30\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 298\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.20h x 6.50w x 1.00d","brand":"Naphtali S. Meshel","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44054675620095,"sku":"9780198705567","price":135.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_3a3fcd46-8b55-40aa-a004-feb3745e20b2.jpg?v=1685031332","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-grammar-of-sacrifice-naphtali-s-meshel-9780198705567","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}