Professor emerita of sociology and anthropology at Bar-Ilan University, her major fields of interest are sociological theory and the sociology of gift-giving and philanthropy to which she also brings a cross cutting engagement with comparative historical and interpretative cultural analysis.
Current research projects explore cultural and institutional aspects of elite philanthropy in past and present contexts, while aiming at furthering the dialogue between various branches of the human sciences in general and combining the legacy of Max Weber and Marcel Mauss in particular.
She is the author of Religious Virtuosity, Charisma and Social Order: A Comparative Sociological Study of Monasticism in Theravada Buddhism and Medieval Catholicism (1995), the editor of Marcel Mauss, Essai sur le Don (2005) in Hebrew and co-editor of Dynamics of Continuity, Patterns of Change: Between World History and Comparative Historical Sociology (2017). Recent articles include “S.N. Eisenstadt’s Theory of Culture” (2020); “The Gift as Deep Play: A “Note” on Performance and Paradox in the Theatrics of Public Giving (2019); “Gifts in Rites of Passage, or Gifts as Rites of Passage?: Standing at the Threshold between Van Gennep and Mauss” (2018); The Cultural Worth of Economies of Worth: French Pragmatic Sociology from a Cultural Sociological Perspective” (2016).
Menu
