Beyond Ethics and Pragmatism


Book Description

Based on several long-term fieldwork projects in Israel and the Unted States, this book brings together a repertoire of subjective and professional experiences of an anthropologist who attended various theoretical and methodological tutoring settings. That varied panorama of research milieus, ethnographic field sites, and diverse personal engagements, has offered a wide perspective on the complex craft of anthropology. Moreover, it sometimes placed the author in unexpected situations that challenged some habitually accepted modes of personal conduct as well as ethnographic research norms and paradigms, expanding the arena and terms of the anthropological assignments and the record of ethnographic works.




Studies Israeli Ethnicity


Book Description

First Published in 1985. Offering a surprisingly fresh look at Israeli society, this authoritative book casts a new light on one of its most fascinating and important social features- the relationship among Israeli ethnic groups. It demonstrates how seemingly contradictory themes of cultural assimilation and heightened ethnicity are linked together and explores the ways in which immigrants have retained their cultural identities when confronted with socialization and stratification in their adopted country.




Making Israel


Book Description

Benny Morris is the founding father of the New Historians, a group of Israeli scholars who have challenged long-established perceptions about the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Their research rigorously documented crimes and atrocities committed by the Israeli armed forces, including rape, torture, and ethnic cleansing. With Making Israel, Morris brings together the first collection of translated articles on the New History by leading Zionist and revisionist Israeli historians, providing Americans with a firsthand view of this important debate and enabling a better understanding of how the New Historians have influenced Israelis' awareness of their own past. "The study of Israeli history, society, politics, and economics over the past two decades has been marked by a fierce and sometimes highly personal debate between 'traditionalists'---scholars who generally interpreted Israeli history and society within the Zionist ethos---and 'revisionists'---scholars who challenged conventional Zionist narratives of Israeli history and society. Making Israel brings together traditionalists and revisionists who openly and directly lay out their key insights about Israel's origins. It also introduces multidisciplinary perspectives on Israel by historians and sociologists, each bringing into the debate its own jargon, its own epistemology and methodology, and its own array of substantive issues. This is essential reading for anybody who wants to understand the different interpretations of Israeli society and perhaps the central debate among students of modern Israel." ---Zeev Maoz, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis, and Distinguished Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya "Israel's 'new historians' have done a great service to their country, and to all who care about the Arab-Israeli conflict. By challenging myths, reexamining evidence, and asking truly important questions about the past they help to confront the present with honesty and realism. This book provides a sampling of the best of what these courageous voices have to offer." ---William B. Quandt, University of Virginia Benny Morris is Professor of Middle East history at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel, and is the author of Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1999.




Historical Dictionary of Morocco


Book Description

A historical reference work on Morocco must take as its subject al-maghrib al-aqsa (the far west) as the Arabic scholars have generally referred to the approximate region of present-day Morocco, roughly the north-west corner of Africa but at times including much of the Iberian peninsula, because the modern nation-state is a relatively recent creation owing much to events in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. External influences on Morocco tend to come across the narrow straits of Gibraltar to the north, from the east along the Mediterranean litoral, or up from the Sahara. In each case, access is constrained by geography and continued control from outside the region has been difficult to manage over the long term. Although many of the dynasties that came to power in Morocco conquered much broader regions, history and topology have so conspired that there is still more coherence to an historical focus on al-maghrib al-aqsa than is the case for most modern nation-states. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Morocco contains a chronology, an introduction, a glossary, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 600 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Morocco.







The Industrial Geography of Israel


Book Description

Israel's industrial geography is unique. The continuing Arab-Israeli conflict has been a primary force behind government intervention in settlement patterns, and has led to a major effort to disperse industry. The geopolitical situation has also encouraged a policy of attempted self-reliance, especially for defence purposes. These factors, combined with an abundant human capital, have given Israeli high-technology industries a special place in the international division of labour. The absorption of waves of mass immigration has influenced industrial development. Rural industrialisation, mainly by the Kibbutz (communal settlement) movement, is another unique feature. The Industrial Geography of Israel presents a comprehensive overview of industrial spatial development of Israel from the Ottoman era to present times, evaluating industrial dispersal policy, corporate geography, high-technology industries, entrepreneurship and rural industrial development. The spatial development of Israeli industry is set within the broader context of Israel's political and economic development and of global economic change, as well as theories of industrial location and regional planning and development.




Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen)


Book Description

Berbers, also known as Imazighen, are the ancient inhabitants of North Africa, but rarely have they formed an actual kingdom or separate nation state. Ranging anywhere between 15-50 million, depending on how they are classified, the Berbers have influenced the culture and religion of Roman North Africa and played key roles in the spread of Islam and its culture in North Africa, Spain, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Taken together, these dynamics have over time converted to redefine the field of Berber identity and its socio-political representations and symbols, making it an even more important issue in the 21st century. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Berbers contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 200 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, places, events, institutions, and aspects of culture, society, economy, and politics. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Berbers.




Cross-Currents in Israeli Culture and Politics


Book Description

This fourth volume of Political Anthropology is the first in the series to be devoted entirely to a single country. Israel is currently undergoing a critical stage of transition in its development. The election of the first Likud government in 1977 ended fifty years of Labor dominance of the political system. It in-troduced new personalities, policies, symbols, and myths as it attempted to establish the legitimacy of the new regime. The 1981 election, which maintained the Likud rule, was the closest and one of the most violent in Israeli history; and one in which political and ethnic tensions reached an unprecedented peak. The election in 1984 will determine considerably more than just which part will rule the country. The very character of the nation is at stake. In this volume the most timely and pressing problems confronting Israeli society are analyzed by leading Israeli and American experts, utilizing the unique interdisciplinary focus of political anthropology. Aronoff analyzes the resurgence of political polarization after almost two decades of relative politi-cal quietude. Lewis astutely explains the role of ethnicity in Israeli politics and how it relates to foreign policy of the Likud government. Shokeid critically analyzes a case study exemplifying collective redefinition of status. Weissbrod sees the war in Lebanon as particularly noteworthy, because it was the first time that a significant part of the Israeli public questioned the justice of an Israeli war, especially during the initial victorious stages. Weisburd and Vinitzky demonstrate that the settlers of Gush Emunim have developed a "rational" ideological legitimization for their vigilante activities against the Arabs in the territories. Dominguez analyzes the meanings of "left" and "right" as multivocal and multifunctional terms in Israeli politics. This volume is the one book that will give you insight into and understanding of the most pressing problems facing Israeli society.




Blackness in Israel


Book Description

This book explores contemporary inflections of blackness in Israel and foreground them in the historical geographies of Europe, the Middle East, and North America. The contributors engage with expressions and appropriations of modern forms of blackness for boundary-making, boundary-breaking, and boundary-re-making in contemporary Israel, underscoring the deep historical roots of contemporary understandings of race, blackness, and Jewishness. Allowing a new perspective on the sociology of Israel and the realm of black studies, this volume reveals a highly nuanced portrait of the phenomenon of blackness, one that is located at the nexus of global, regional, national and local dimensions. While race has been discussed as it pertains to Judaism at large, and Israeli society in particular, blackness as a conceptual tool divorced from phenotype, skin tone and even music has yet to be explored. Grounded in ethnographic research, the study demonstrates that many ethno-racial groups that constitute Israeli society intimately engage with blackness as it is repeatedly and explicitly addressed by a wide array of social actors. Enhancing our understanding of the politics of identity, rights, and victimhood embedded within the rhetoric of blackness in contemporary Israel, this book will be of interest to scholars of blackness, globalization, immigration, and diaspora.