Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

I have a kosher kitchen. That means that I have two sets of dishes, one for meat and one for dairy so that I always make absolutely %100 sure that I never eat meat and dairy products togther. "Meatness" or "Dairyness" can be transfered to objects that are nether meat nor dairy. Example: if I had an apple, and I put that apple on a meat-plate (not a plate made of meat but a plate designated for meat products) then that apple becomes meat as far as its kosher status goes. Then, if I picked up that apple and put it on a dairy plate, the apple becomes unkosher or treif. Not Only that, but the dairy plate is also unkosher, because the apple transfered it's meatness to the dairy plate. The apple can never be kosher again and it has to be thrown away or given to someone who doesn't keep kosher. The plate however, can be made re-kosher by dipping it in boiling water or emersing it in a mikveh or ritual bath. I think this is an interesting exaple of how objects not only fashion bodies or spaces, but other objects.

Elizabeth mentioned in her lecture this (Tuesday) morning about relics preceding churches and how churches are often built around relics. An interesting example of this is the wailing wall or the western wall of what used to be "The Temple" fore the Jews, and is currently a very important mosque. We all know that the huge war that is currently going on there has a little to do with this wall and this mosque. But what not every one know is that having or not having that temple has changed Judaism as a whole dramatically. There's a large number of Jewish rituals that revolve around having that temple, and can only be performed in that temple. For instance animal sacrifices and the pronunciation of one of G-d's 72 names. There are also special rules revolving around the western wall. Women are allowed to wrap tefilin in their own homes or in private, but if they wrap them at the wall they can be arrested. So this place not only fashions religion, but gender as well, and it becomes an excuse for religiously sanctioned sexism.