The Herodians and Mediterranean Kinship Part 2: Marriage and Divorce

This is the second in a three-part, cross-cultural study analyzing kinship in the Mediterranean world. The Herodian family serves as a test case for analyzing Jewish kinship structures and family systems of the Second Temple period, and thus providing the data for an analysis of biblical kinship. In this part, the focus is on marriage strategies (endogamy and exogamy), choice of spouse (liberty and authority), locality of residence, and divorce. The major family types operant in the Roman Empire are placed within the analytic framework articulated by the anthropologist Emmanuel Todd.