Synopses & Reviews
"
Birthing the Nation provides the first serious and comprehensive treatment of an issue full of intense meaning. Kanaaneh sets her unique study against a backdrop of Israeli political arithmetic, Palestinian subordination, nationalism, gender culture, globalization and modernity. Women's bodies and reproductive potential are the sites on which this demographic contest is played out. Therefore, this book has relevance and resonance far beyond the ethnographic site."and#151;Julie Peteet, author of
Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement"This well-written and theoretically informed book remains faithful to the reality of the politics of reproduction in Galilee-indeed to the reality of Galilee society. Throughout, the narrative rings true. Kanaaneh argues compellingly and convincingly that understanding reproductive behavior clarifies how Palestinians within Israel negotiate the tortured path of self-definition and definition."and#151;Rashid Khalidi, author of Palestinian Identity: The Construction of a Modern National Consciousness
"The [Palestinian-Israeli] conflict that shapes this book is sadly alive and indeed booming louder than ever. News broadcasts around the world almost daily report the rising death tolls. We urgently need to hear more feminist perspectives (both male and female) like Rhoda Kanaaneh's that seriously attend to the intersections of politics, 'race,' class, religion and gender. It is indispensable to anyone interested in struggles for justice and freedom, including those against racism and sexism, wherever they may occur."and#151;Hanan Ashrawi, spokeswoman for the Arab League and author of This Side of Peace
"Birthing the Nation shows how, in the case of Israel even more than elsewhere in the world, the demands of states and nations turn private decisions about families and bodies into political arithmetics of populations. Eschewing polemics, Kanaaneh uses detailed ethnography of households, bodies, consumption, sex, and gender in a Palestinian village in Israel to illuminate a crucial new piece of the puzzle of the politics of reproduction: the use of 'reproductive ranking' in negotiations of modernity."and#151;Lila Abu-Lughod, editor of Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East
"At once a work of political demography, feminist inquiry, and anthropological reflection, Birthing the Nation demonstrates with passion and precision how and why the study of reproduction is also the study of social struggle and transformation. It is a 'must read' not only for students of anthropology, women's studies, and Middle Eastern studies, but for anyone interested in the ongoing project of modern nationalism which this study of reproductive politics so brilliantly illuminates."and#151;Rayna Rapp, coeditor of Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction
Review
and#8220;Informative, engaging, and well-researched.and#8221;
Synopsis
Unorthodox Kin is a groundbreaking exploration of identity, relatedness, and belonging in the context of profound global interconnection. Naomi Leite paints a poignant and graceful portrait of Portugal's urban Marranos, who trace their ancestry to fifteenth-century Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism and now seek connection with the Jewish people at large. Their story raises questions fundamental to the human condition: how people come to identify with far-flung others; how some find glimmerings of mystical connection in a world said to be disenchanted; how identities are lived in practice and challenged in interaction; how the horizons of kinship expand in a globally interconnected era; and how feelings of relatedness emerge between strangers and gather strength over time. Focusing on mutual imaginings and face-to-face encounters between urban Marranos and the foreign Jewish tourists and outreach workers who travel to meet them, Leite draws on a decade of ethnographic research in Portugal to trace participants' perceptions of self, peoplehood, and belonging as they evolve through local and global social spaces.
Synopsis
Unorthodox Kin is a groundbreaking exploration of identity, relatedness, and belonging in a global era. Naomi Leite paints an intimate portrait of Portugal's urban Marranos, who trace their ancestry to fifteenth-century Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism, as they seek to rejoin the Jewish people. Focusing on mutual imaginings and direct encounters between Marranos, Portuguese Jews, and foreign Jewish tourists and outreach workers, Leite tracks how visions of self and kin evolve over time and across social spaces, ending in a surprising path to belonging. A poignant evocation of how ideas of ancestry shape the present, how feelings of kinship arise among far-flung strangers, and how some find mystical connection in a world said to be disenchanted, this is a model study for anthropology today.
Synopsis
Unorthodox Kin is a groundbreaking exploration of identity, relatedness, and belonging in a global era. In urban Portugal today, hundreds of individuals trace their ancestry to 15th century Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism, and many now seek to rejoin the Jewish people as a whole. For the most part, however, these self-titled Marranos ("hidden Jews") lack any direct experience of Jews or Judaism, and Portugal's tiny, tightly knit Jewish community offers no clear path of entry. According to Jewish law, to be recognized as a Jew one must be born to a Jewish mother or pursue religious conversion, an anathema to those who feel their ancestors' Judaism was cruelly stolen from them. After centuries of familial Catholicism, and having been refused inclusion locally, how will these self-declared ancestral Jews find belonging among "the Jewish family," writ large? How, that is, can people rejected as strangers face-to-face become members of a global imagined community - not only rhetorically, but experientially?
Leite addresses this question through intimate portraits of the lives and experiences of a network of urban Marranos who sought contact with foreign Jewish tourists and outreach workers as a means of gaining educational and moral support in their quest. Exploring mutual imaginings and direct encounters between Marranos, Portuguese Jews, and foreign Jewish visitors, Unorthodox Kin deftly tracks how visions of self and kin evolve over time and across social spaces, ending in an unexpected path to belonging. In the process, the analysis weaves together a diverse set of current anthropological themes, from intersubjectivity to international tourism, class structures to the construction of identity, cultural logics of relatedness to transcultural communication. A compelling evocation of how ideas of ancestry shape the present, how feelings of kinship arise among far-flung strangers, and how some find mystical connection in a world said to be disenchanted, Unorthodox Kin is a model study for anthropology today.
This acclaimed monograph will appeal to scholars in anthropology, sociology, religious studies, and tourism studies. Its accessible, narrative-driven style makes it especially well suited for introductory and advanced courses in general cultural anthropology, ethnography, theories of identity and social categorization, and the study of globalization, kinship, tourism, and religion.
Synopsis
How are local understandings of identity, relatedness, and belonging transformed in a global era? How does international tourism affect possibilities for who one can become?
In urban Portugal today, hundreds of individuals trace their ancestry to 15th century Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism, and many now seek to rejoin the Jewish people as a whole. For the most part, however, these self-titled Marranos ("hidden Jews") lack any direct experience of Jews or Judaism, and Portugal's tiny, tightly knit Jewish community offers no clear path of entry. According to Jewish law, to be recognized as a Jew one must be born to a Jewish mother or pursue religious conversion, an anathema to those who feel their ancestors' Judaism was cruelly stolen from them. After centuries of familial Catholicism, and having been refused inclusion locally, how will these self-declared ancestral Jews find belonging among "the Jewish family," writ large? How, that is, can people rejected as strangers face-to-face become members of a global imagined community - not only rhetorically, but experientially?
Leite addresses this question through intimate portraits of the lives and experiences of a network of urban Marranos who sought contact with foreign Jewish tourists and outreach workers as a means of gaining educational and moral support in their quest. Exploring mutual imaginings and direct encounters between Marranos, Portuguese Jews, and foreign Jewish visitors, Unorthodox Kin deftly tracks how visions of self and kin evolve over time and across social spaces, ending in an unexpected path to belonging. In the process, the analysis weaves together a diverse set of current anthropological themes, from intersubjectivity to international tourism, class structures to the construction of identity, cultural logics of relatedness to transcultural communication.
A compelling evocation of how ideas of ancestry shape the present, how feelings of kinship arise among far-flung strangers, and how some find mystical connection in a world said to be disenchanted, Unorthodox Kin will appeal to a wide audience interested in anthropology, sociology, Jewish studies, and religious studies. Its accessible, narrative-driven style makes it especially well suited for introductory and advanced courses in general cultural anthropology, ethnography, theories of identity and social categorization, and the study of globalization, kinship, tourism, and religion.
Synopsis
Long regarded as a classic, The Tourist is an examination of the phenomenon of tourism through a social theory lens that encompasses discussions of authenticity, high and low culture, and the construction of social reality. It brings the concerns of social science to an analysis of travel and sightseeing in the postindustrial age, during which the middle class acquired leisure time for international travel. This edition includes a new foreword by Lucy R. Lippard and a new afterword by the author.
Synopsis
"Nothing short of brilliant."Lewis Coser
Synopsis
This study of contemporary crypto-Jewsdescendants of European Jews forced to convert to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisitiontraces the group's history of clandestinely conducting their faith and their present-day efforts to reclaim their past. Janet Liebman Jacobs masterfully combines historical and social scientific theory to fashion a brilliant analysis of hidden ancestry and the transformation of religious and ethnic identity.
Synopsis
"Janet Jacobs enters fearlessly into the house of mirrors that is Jewish-Hispanic identity, where nothing is what it appears to be. Her ethnography is about the uses of silence and the excuses of memory."Ilan Stavans, author of
On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language"Janet Jacobs's book is a beautifully written, compelling account of the experiences of contemporary crypto-Jews who are struggling to locate the meanings of their various identities. I know of no other works that cover this material, and Jacobs does so in a rich finely nuanced way in which she deals with issues of family, memory, community, and belonging. I love the way she draws on such a wide variety of materials to explore this topic in a wide-ranging and impressive way."Lynn Davidman, author of Tradition in a Rootless World
Synopsis
In this classic analysis of travel and sightseeing, author Dean MacCannell brings social scientific understandings to bear on tourism in the postindustrial age, during which the middle class has acquired leisure time for international travel.
In The Touristnow with a new introduction framing it as part of a broader contemporary social and cultural analysisthe author examines notions of authenticity, high and low culture, and the construction of social reality around tourism.
Synopsis
In this rich, evocative study, Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh examines the changing notions of sexuality, family, and reproduction among Palestinians living in Israel. Distinguishing itself amid the media maelstrom that has homogenized Palestinians as "terrorists," this important new work offers a complex, nuanced, and humanized depiction of a group rendered invisible despite its substantial size, now accounting for nearly twenty percent of Israel's population. Groundbreaking and thought-provoking, Birthing the Nation contextualizes the politics of reproduction within contemporary issues affecting Palestinians, and places these issues against the backdrop of a dominant Israeli society.
Synopsis
Since Peter Stuyvesant greeted with enmity the first group of Jews to arrive on the docks of New Amsterdam in 1654, Jews have entwined their fate and fortunes with that of the United Statesand#151;a project marked by great struggle and great promise. What this interconnected destiny has meant for American Jews and how it has defined their experience among the world's Jews is fully chronicled in this work, a comprehensive and finely nuanced history of Jews in the United States from 1654 through the end of the past century. Hasia R. Diner traces Jewish participation in American historyand#151;from the communities that sent formal letters of greeting to George Washington; to the three thousand Jewish men who fought for the Confederacy and the ten thousand who fought in the Union army; to the Jewish activists who devoted themselves to the labor movement and the civil rights movement.
Diner portrays this history as a constant process of negotiation, undertaken by ordinary Jews who wanted at one and the same time to be Jews and full Americans. Accordingly, Diner draws on both American and Jewish sources to explain the chronology of American Jewish history, the structure of its communal institutions, and the inner dynamism that propelled it. Her work documents the major developments of American Judaismand#151;he economic, social, cultural, and political activities of the Jews who immigrated to and settled in America, as well as their descendantsand#151;and shows how these grew out of both a Jewish and an American context. She also demonstrates how the equally compelling urges to maintain Jewishness and to assimilate gave American Jewry the particular character that it retains to this day in all its subtlety and complexity.
Synopsis
"Hasia Diner's history of American Jewry effortlessly surpasses its predecessors. A work of both synthesis and analysis, it ranges widely, incorporating insights from social, cultural, political, and religious history. Both the specialist and the general reader will profit from its clarity and intelligence. In particular, its novel periodization will spark discussion of conventional ways of thinking about the development of the American Jewish community."and#151;Todd M. Endleman, author of
The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000"Author of many books on immigration, foodways, and other topics, Hasia Diner now brings us an exceptionally fine, candid, and often surprising one-volume narrative of the entire run of American Jewish history. Meticulously accurate yet smoothly flowing, it will enlighten and delight knowledgeable and new readers alike. A 'must read'-and now the best read-on the subject."and#151;Walter T. Nugent, author of Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migrations, 1870-1914
"The Jews of the United States is a masterful and richly textured account of the Jewish experience in this country over 350 years. Diner has produced an important book, at once systematic and synthetic, that attends to the many diverse expressions of Jewish life in America. With grace, clarity, and erudition, she explores the social, religious, and institutional life of Jews in the United States, enlivening her story throughout with intriguing personalities and anecdotes. This is history that engages, informs, and entertains. A milestone in American Jewish historiography!"and#151;David Myers, author of Resisting History: Historicism and Its Discontents in German-Jewish Thought
About the Author
Hasia R. Diner is Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History at New York University. She is the author of Lower East Side Memories: The Jewish Place in America (2000), Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration (2001), and, with Beryl Benderly, Her Works Praise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America, 1654 to the Present (2002).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction. Crypto-Jewish Descent: An Ethnographic Study in Historical Perspective
1. Secrecy, Antisemitism, and the Dangers of Jewishness
2. Women and the Persistence of Culture: Ritual, Custom, and the Recovery of Sephardic Ancestry
3. The Self-in-Relation and the Transformation of Religious Consciousness
4. Syncretism and Faith Blending in Modern Crypto-Judaism
5. Conversion and the Rekindling of the Jewish Soul
6. Jewish Ancestry and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity
Conclusion. Ethnic Loss and the Future of Crypto-Jewish Culture