The Stains of Culture: An Ethno-Reading of Karaite Jewish Women.

• Author: Ulmer, Rivka

The Stains of Culture: An Ethno-Reading of Karaite Jewish Women. BY RUTH TSOFFAR. Detroit: WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2005. Pp. xv + 245, illus. $27.95 (paper).

Stains of Culture focuses upon menstruation in the contemporary Karaite community, a group that has defined its own boundaries outside of Rabbinic Judaism. The book is a rewritten dissertation that has not entirely shed its previous objectives. For example, Tsoffar refers to numerous methods in cultural studies and presents allusions to established theories of ethnography. Most of the methods seem to be highly appropriate to the investigation of blood and stains, i.e., the visible signs of a bodily fluid within a limited cultural context. In order to ground the non-specialist reader, Tsoffar presents a brief background of Karaite history. In particular, the author refers to the narrative history of this group, which is intricately related to the definition of their identity. The Karaites' claim to authenticity and to legitimacy is based upon their perceived record of origins. Similar to other groups that seek to establish a religious-cultural identity, some Karaites consider themselves as a distinct group that has existed since the time of Biblical Creation, although other Karaites maintain their origins date to the time of the divided Israelite kingdom. Tsoffar additionally notes the contentions of preeminent Karaite scholars (e.g., Leon Nemoy, Zvi Ankori, and Raphael Mahler), who often place the origins of Karaism in eighth-century Babylonia.

One distinction between Rabbinic Jews (Rabbanites) and Karaites pertains to dietary regulations; in contrast to Rabbanites the Karaites do not separate meat and milk. The Karaite position is based upon their approach to Scripture. Tsoffar claims that menstruation and other female discharges are of centrality to contemporary Karaite culture. She supports this contention in chapters that discuss conjugal relations on the Sabbath and the inability of Karaites to talk directly about menstruation. Although the author is aware of her position as a non-Karaite, she attempts to present a view from the "inside" by allowing the subjects of her study to "speak" to the reader. This communication is achieved by transcribing several interviews conducted with contemporary Karaite women, mainly of Egyptian origin.

Tsoffar also describes on a ritual level a Karaite Sabbath worship service and the subsequent social gathering. In these descriptions the...