Journal Article

Magic Formulae and Women’s History

Manekin-Bamberger, Avigail

2025

Overview

Aramaic incantation bowls dated to the fifth to seventh centuries C.E. contain valuable details about the daily lives, hardships, and fears of named individuals. Despite the bowls’ potential to provide novel insights, previous studies on the women of the bowls have primarily focused on the possibility of female authorship. These studies often disregarded the poetic structure of the incantation bowls, which consist of fixed textual units that recur repeatedly throughout the corpus. This essay argues that the formulaic nature of the bowls challenges the argument of female authorship. Additionally, it suggests that this same formulaic nature can be used to explore new avenues of research on women and gender in Late Antiquity. This involves focusing on common ailments and mishaps related to women, frequent accusations against female adversaries, and aspects of demonology that reflect male and female perspectives alongside gendered social values. The results of this study may be useful for further research on women’s lives and social values in Late Antiquity, as well as for reframing the search for women’s voices and agency in this period.

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Subject: Authorship / Bowls / Feminism / Gender / Poetics / Tableware / Traditions / Women / Womens history