SHS/not checked/03/12/2019
To understand purity from both the male and the female perspective within the Qumran communities, this article will be using 4QTohorot A (4Q274) as a case study to: review the formation and function of gender within the manuscript; permit a broadening of the critique of purity to include a range of gender issues; enable a discussion of the position of women in relation to female purification laws; and permit exploration of the male perspective and experience from a masculinist perspective. By concentrating on the functionality of this particular scroll, further insights will be gained to understand the gendered and identity politics at play behind such strict purity regulations in order to discern—and to imagine—what it actually meant to be a constant threat of potential pollution within communities where purity ruled all aspects of everyday life, and how such regulations worked on a gendered level.