E-raamat: Constructing Ethnic Identities: Immigration, Festivals and Syncretism

"This book deals with how, starting in the 1960s, immigrant groups in Israel constructed their ethnic identity by reviving their ethnic festivals and turning them into part of Israeli society. For the immigrants, these festivals serve as a collective "definitional ceremony," with an intersection of ethnicity, culture, and identity. They also help them to develop cultural and religious syncretism. The discussion of their social and political leaders' ethnic activism provides important insights about the ways in which immigrant leaders employ their ethnic tradition as a resource for mobilizing cultural, social, and political capital that will facilitate their penetration of the cultural mainstream"--

Sharaby describes how immigrant groups in Israel constructed their ethnic identity by reviving their ethnic festivals and turning them into part of Israeli society. The revival of the ethnic festivals of immigrants from North Africa, Kurdistan, and Ethiopia was an aspect of the protests by marginal groups against the political and social center, she says, and was part of an ongoing process of "ethnic politics" that attempted to acquire political power by means of rhetoric and symbols of ethnic identity, with the bulk of the activity focused on the cultural sphere. Annotation ©2022 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

The book shows how minority groups recreate their traditions and employ them as a means to preserve ethnic boundaries, to redefine identity, and to move towards mainstream culture. The result is a variation of ritual syncretism, demonstrating the immigrants’ multiple social locations.