of an Israel that is also small and vulnerable..." She adds "This is not misogynist story-telling but something far more complex in which the treatment of women becomes the clue to the morality of the social order." Professor of Religion J. David Pleins says these tales are included by the Deuteronomic historian to demonstrate the evils of life without a centralized shrine and single political authority. Women did have some role in the ritual life of religion as represented in the Bible though they could not be priests; but then neither could just any man. Only male Levites could be priests. Women (as well as men) were required to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem once a year (men each of the three main festivals if they could) and offer the Passover sacrifice. They would also do so on special occasions in their lives such as giving a todah ("thanksgiving") offering after childbirth. Hence, they participated in many of the major public religious roles that non-Levitical men could, albeit less often and on a somewhat smaller and generally more discreet scale. Old Testament scholar Christine Roy Yoder says that in the Book of Proverbs, the divine attribute of Holy Wisdom is presented as female. She points out that "on the one hand" such a reference elevates women, and "on the other hand" the "strange" woman also in Proverbs "perpetuates the stereotype of woman as either wholly good or wholly evil." Economics In traditional agrarian societies, a woman's role in the economic well-being of the household was an essential one. Ancient Israel had no developed market economy for most of the Iron Age, so a woman's role in commodity production was essential for survival. Meyer's says that "women were largely responsible for food processing, textile production, and the fashioning of various household implements and containers (grinding tools, stone, and ceramic vessels, baskets, weaving implements, and sewing tools). Many of these tasks were not only time-consuming and physically demanding but also technologically sophisticated. ... As anthropologist Jack Goody noted, because women could transform the raw into the cooked and produce other essential commodities, they were seen as having the ability to “work ... wonders.” This translated into a share of power in the household. According to Meyer, women had a say in activities related to production and consumption, the allocation of household spaces and implements, supervision and assignment of tasks,