Unorthodox Kin
Author | : Naomi Leite |
Publisher | : Univ of California Press |
Total Pages | : 342 |
Release | : 2017-03-07 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780520285040 |
ISBN-13 | : 0520285042 |
Rating | : 4/5 (40 Downloads) |
Download or read book Unorthodox Kin written by Naomi Leite and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.