Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Introduction / Saul M. Olyan -- Social theory and the study of Israelite religion : a retrospective on the past forty years of research / Robert R. Wilson -- Cult centralization, the erosion of kin-based communities, and the implications for women's religious practice / Susan Ackerman -- The Levites and sociocultural change in ancient Judah : insights from Gerhard Lenski's social theory / Stephen L. Cook -- Away from ritual : the prophetic critique / Ronald Hendel -- "They have become women" : Judean diaspora and postcolonial theories of gender and migration / T.M. Lemos -- Text production and destruction in ancient Israel : ritual and political dimensions / Nathaniel B. Levtow -- The function of feasts : an anthropological perspective on Israelite religious festivals / Carol Meyers -- Theorizing violence in Biblical ritual contexts : the case of mourning rites / Saul M. Olyan -- Theories regarding witchcraft accusations and the Hebrew Bible / Rüdiger Schmitt -- Ritual theory, ritual texts, and the Priestly-Holiness writings of the Pentateuch / David P. Wright.