Date of Award
1993
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
First Advisor
Ray Becvar
Second Advisor
Edward Doerr
Third Advisor
Becky McKenna
Abstract
Outstanding among recurrent, connected themes revolving around the issue of the Blessing for the Patriarchal succession are the complementary rival roles of sons, modeled on the mythical motif of Cain and Abel; the favoring of the younger son; the barrenness of the Matriarchs; and the conflicted nature of marital relationships in a patriarchal system that included matriarchal elements tending to social equality alongside the institution of concubinage with its fundamental psycho-sexual Inequality. Abandonment of primogeniture paralleled separation from polytheistic culture; and the personalities of the Patriarchs constituted !deal types toward which the emergent community moved. Roles were assigned and maintained through processes of projective identification in which socialreligious values and the innermost interests of Matriarch and Patriarch converged. The binding mother-son relation, tt1e practice of concubinage, and exigent social factors combined to produce the delay in conception that was understood as barrenness. Parental enmeshment with the chosen son intensified throughout the generations, leading to family rupture, when Jacob's older sons expelled Joseph from the family. An unprecedented degree of individuation was reached in the powerful personality of Joseph and in Jacob's division of blessings between all twelve of his sons at the close of the Book of Genesis. The Patriarchal saga exemplifies the complex interplay of social and psychological processes in family life.
Recommended Citation
Rosen, Yvonne A., "A Family Study of the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (1993). Theses. 1282.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/theses/1282
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