AMAMIHE Journal of Applied Philosophy

This study examines Tamar’s narrative in Genesis 38 as a compelling illustration of patriarchal legalism and the commodification of women within Ancient Near Eastern kinship structures. It investigates how levirate marriage, though intended to preserve male lineage, simultaneously suspended female autonomy and reduced widows to reproductive assets controlled by patriarchal authority. Adopting a qualitative interdisciplinary methodology, the study combines socio-historical criticism with feminist hermeneutics to interrogate the gendered power relations embedded in the text. The analysis is anchored in Gayle Rubin’s sex/gender system and her concept of the traffic in women, which explain how kinship arrangements transform women into objects of exchange for male inheritance and alliance. Findings show that Tamar was deliberately withheld and socially immobilized within Judah’s household, revealing a form of female warehousing under patriarchal convenience. Nevertheless, Tamar’s strategic disruption of social norms and her seizure of Judah’s legal tokens enabled her to reclaim agency, justice, and legitimacy. The study concludes that Genesis 38 presents Tamar not merely as a passive widow but as a female subject who exposes and destabilizes structures of patriarchal commodification.

Open Full Text (PDF)