This volume explores the advantages of seeing a topic from two
different but complementary perspectives. All of the papers in the
volume were read at two sessions at SBL (2005 and 2006) that were cosponsored
by the Social Sciences and the Hebrew Bible Section of SBL
and the American Schools of Oriental Research. The sessions were
designed to promote dialogue among scholars by juxtaposing research
based in the social sciences and archaeology. Scholars contributed
papers from within their own methodological and research
perspective, but addressed possible interactions and overlaps that
their research might contribute to the complementary perspective.
Significant intersections between the approaches emerged when
patterns of social interactions accessed by social scientific methods
paralleled patterns in material remains accessed by archaeological
methods.
The sessions and thus the book achieve coherence because all of the
papers attended to aspects of the family in ancient Israel. While the
presenters selected their own topics in the subject area, several foci
emerged that reflect current research interests in these fields. These
foci include research on ancestors and the cult of the dead,
configurations of family house structures, and family relational
interactions. All of the papers make their methods and approaches
visible and delineate clearly the textual or material basis of their
research, so that the dialogue among the papers is facilitated.
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