Toward an anthropology of nation building and unbuilding in Israel /edited and with an introduction by Fran Markowitz, Stephen Sharot, and Moshe Shokeid ; afterword by Alex Weingrod.
- Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, (c)2015.
- 1 online resource
Includes bibliographical references.
Introduction / COEXISTENCE AND CONFLICT -- Living together separately: Arab-Palestinian places through Jewish-Israeli eyes / Landscapes of despair, islands of hope: Social working in the unrecognized Arab-Bedouin villages in the Negev / Performing the People's Army: The Israeli military manages symbolic and moral boundaries / Another item in the News: Normalcy and distress at Sapir College / From the protest to testimony and confession: The changing politics of peace organizations in Israel / MIGRATION, ETHNICITY, AND IDENTITIES -- From engaged mediator to freelance consultant: Israeli social scientists in the service of immigrant absorption / A different Mizrahi story: How the Iraqis became Israelis / Living separately, loving tragically: Cross-ethnic romance in Israeli films / Universalism and particularism revisited: Immigrant physicians from the former Soviet Union in Israel / Israelis of Ethiopian origin: New identity constructs and research models / Fran Markowitz, Stephen Sharot, and Moshe Shokeid -- Efrat Ben-Ze'ev -- Hagit Peres -- Edna Lomsky-Feder and Eyal Ben-Ari -- Dafna Shir-Vertesh -- Sara Helman -- Moshe Shokeid -- Esther Meir-Glitzenstein -- Stephen Sharot -- Judith T. Shuval -- Lisa Anteby-Yemini. RELIGION AND RITUALS -- Toward an ethnography of a Mediterranean people: The complex culture of southern Tunisian Jewry in the early twentieth century / "With Us More than Ever Before": Making the absent rebbe present in messianic Habad / How do we know when a society is changing? Reflections on liberal Judaism in Israel / More dry bones: The significance of changes in mortuary ritual in contemporary Israel / "Where It All Began": Archaeology, nationalism, and fundamentalism in Silwan / Vehicles of values: Souvenirs and the moralities of exchange in Christian Holy Land pilgrimage / COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES -- Reading and redacting national landscapes: Tales of two buildings from Israel and Bosnia / "I Love a Parade": Ethnic identity in the United States and Israel / Middle East studies in Israel, Europe, and the United States: Trends and prospects / Afterword / Shlomo Deshen -- Yoram Bilu -- Harvey E. Goldberg -- Henry Abramovitch -- Michael Feige -- Jackie Feldman -- Fran Markowitz -- Abraham Rosman and Paula G. Rubel -- Dale F. Eickelman -- Alex Weingrod.
"Toward an Anthropology of Nation Building and Unbuilding in Israel presents twenty-two original essays offering a critical survey of the anthropology of Israel inspired by Alex Weingrod, emeritus professor and pioneering scholar of Israeli anthropology. In the late 1950s Weingrod's groundbreaking ethnographic research of Israel's underpopulated south complicated the dominant social science discourse and government policy of the day by focusing on the ironies inherent in the project of Israeli nation building and on the process of migration prompted by social change. Drawing from Weingrod's perspective, this collection considers the gaps, ruptures, and juxtapositions in Israeli society and the cultural categories undergirding and subverting these divisions. Organized into four parts, the volume examines our understanding of Israel as a place of difference, the disruptions and integrations of diaspora, the various permutations of Judaism, and the role of symbol in the national landscape and in Middle Eastern studies considered from a comparative perspective. These essays illuminate the key issues pervading, motivating, and frustrating Israel's complex ethnoscape."--