"Woman's witt is poor, but who disregards it must be mad": woma's image in Sephardic proverbs

Agnieszka August-Zarębska

The focus of the paper consists in reconstructing woman's image preserved in Sephardic proverbs. After sketching the origins and historical background of Sephardic Jews as well as some general characteristic features of their language - Judezmo - the authors present and analyze a wide range of sayings dealing with different aspects concerning woman and femininity. The variety of proverbs has been organized according to three main topics: physical appearance, features of character and social roles held by women. The whole text can be treated as depiction of the part of the linguistic world view embedded in Judezmo proverbs, namely: the figure of woman. Because it describes the concept of woman and femininity within a bygone patriarchal society, it may also serve as the basis for further gender studies on sephardic culture. Finally, it may be used as a source of knowledge about customs regaring woman in this culture.