The Red Tent

The so-called ancestral period is generally believed to date 1800-1500 BCE, during the Middle Bronze Age in the ancient “Near East,” a term that encompasses regions in the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Southwest Asia. The land granted to Abraham’s descendants by his god is referred to as Canaan, a territory in the southern Levant, bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The people spoke Semitic languages, and civilization is believed to have included several city-states surrounded by farming and herding tribes.

When Jacob flees his home, he heads north to Haran, where his ancestors are from and where part of his family still lives. Haran is part of Mesopotamia, land now in modern Iraq, which was the birthplace of several powerful empires in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. During the Middle Bronze Age, the town of Shechem was an important commercial and political center in the southern Levant. Canaan enjoyed extensive trade relations with Egypt and city-states like Mesopotamia.

Religious beliefs in these regions was extensive. Jacob refers to his god as “El,” a Semitic word that simply means “god.” Monotheism was unique for this time period: It was common to worship several gods, or favor one or two the way Laban’s daughters each have their own preferred goddess. Inanna was a goddess of Mesopotamia, also called Ishtar or the Queen of Heaven, and oversaw beauty, fertility, love, sex, and war. She was widely venerated across the ancient regions of North Africa, the Mediterranean, and Southwest Asia, as reflected by many cult centers and temples, as well as the practice of baking special cakes or loaves of bread as an offering.

The Red Tent references several deities with varying roles and realms of influence. Dinah describes El as “a jealous, mysterious god, too fearsome [Jacob said] to be fashioned as an idol by human hands, too big to be contained by any place” (61). Inanna is the preferred goddess of the red tent, and the Opening ceremony dedicates one’s first menstrual blood to her as a symbol of fertility. She is also worshipped by the oracle Rebecca and her followers at Mamre. In the Book of Genesis, Mamre is a site made sacred by Abraham, but in The Red Tent, it is a grove of terebinth trees dedicated to Inanna, where she is served by priestesses called Deborah. The novel also identifies Zilpah’s favorite goddess, Asherah, a goddess of fertility, and Ninursag, a Sumerian mother-goddess who also governs fertility and reproduction. When she moves to Egypt, Dinah becomes familiar with the Egyptian pantheon, including Bastet, a goddess who can take the form of a cat, and Taweret, who oversees childbirth and fertility—predominant concerns for the female characters and logical given Dinah’s role as a midwife.

The taboo of menstruation is grounded in ancient superstitions about impurity. Many religious traditions forbid menstruating women from entering a temple or taking part in ritual observance. Jewish tradition (and later, Christian tradition) insisted on seclusion during menstruation, and requires a cleansing bath or mikveh for a return to purity. Menstruation (and its association with pregnancy and childbirth) is considered the definitive aspect of womanhood by many cultures, and women’s reproductive organs have historically been used to distinguish them and men. The Red Tent leans heavily on this distinction.