Aesthetics of Sorrow: The Wailing Culture of Yemenite Jewish Women (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology)

The time period "wailing tradition" contains an array of women's behaviors and ideology following the dying of a member in their ethnic workforce and is regular of Jewish existence in Yemeni tradition. valuable to the perform is wailing itself-a designated inventive style that mixes speech with sobbing into relocating lyrical poetry that explores the that means of demise and loss. In Aesthetics of Sorrow: The Wailing tradition of Yemenite Jewish Women, Tova Gamliel decodes the cultural and mental meanings of this custom in an ethnography in line with her anthropological learn between Yemenite Jewish groups in Israel in 2001-2003.

in accordance with participant-observervation in houses of the bereaved and on twenty-four in-depth interviews with wailing men and women, Gamliel illuminates wailing tradition point by way of point: via the circles within which the task happens; the particular components of undertaking that belong to ladies; and the extensive social, historic, and spiritual context that surrounds those internal circles. She discusses the most topics that outline the wailing tradition (including the ancient origins of women's wailing in most cases and of Yemenite Jewish wailing in particular), the characteristics of wailing as an inventive style, and the wailer as a symbolic kind. She additionally explores the function of wailing in dying rituals, as a healing services endowed with detailed affective mechanisms, as an erotic functionality, as a livelihood, and as a hallmark of the Jewish exile. in any case, she considers wailing on the intersection of culture and modernity and examines the research of wailing as a real methodological challenge.

Gamliel brings a delicate eye to the vanishing perform of wailing, which has been mostly unexamined via students and will be surprising to many outdoor of the center East. Her interdisciplinary point of view and her specialize in a uniquely girl immigrant cultural perform will make this examine interesting analyzing for students of anthropology, gender, folklore, psychology, functionality, philosophy, and sociology.

Show description

Quick preview of Aesthetics of Sorrow: The Wailing Culture of Yemenite Jewish Women (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology) PDF

Best Judaism books

The Jewish Holidays: A Guide and Commentary

The coeditor of the drastically well known Jewish Catalog "help[s] readers comprehend extra totally the that means of our vacations and thereby to watch those gala's . . . with a better devotion and pleasure. "--Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler

About the author
MICHAEL STRASSFELD is the rabbi of the Society for the development of Judaism, a synagogue. He lives in big apple along with his spouse, Rabbi
Joy Levitt, and their 5 children.

Originally released in 1985.
E-published in 2011.

A History of the Jews

A countrywide bestseller, this incredible 4000 12 months survey covers not just Jewish heritage yet he effect of Jewish genius and mind's eye at the international. by way of the writer of contemporary instances: the realm From the Twenties to the Eighties.

How to Be a Mentsh (and Not a Shmuck)

Guaranteed to resonate with Jewish and Gentile readers alike, how you can Be a Mentsh (and no longer a Shmuck) is a smart and witty self-help handbook for pursuing happiness whereas nonetheless performing with integrity, honor, and compassion. Michael Wex, big apple occasions bestselling writer of Born to Kvetch and simply Say Nu, attracts on assets that diversity from the Talmud and Yiddish proverbs to modern tune and flicks during this insightful advisor that explores not just human nature and psychology but our tasks to ourselves and each other.

Antisemitism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Antisemitism, as hatred of Jews and Judaism, has been a crucial challenge of Western civilization for millennia, and its background maintains to ask debate. This Very brief advent untangles the heritage of the phenomenon, from historic spiritual clash to 'new' antisemitism within the twenty first century. Steven Beller unearths how Antisemitism grew as a political and ideological circulate within the nineteenth century, the way it reached its darkish apogee within the worst genocide in glossy historical past - the Holocaust - and the way Antisemitism nonetheless persists worldwide this day.

Extra info for Aesthetics of Sorrow: The Wailing Culture of Yemenite Jewish Women (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology)

Show sample text content

In the course of a weird pause that frequently happened at those moments, we switched roles. The interviewee, simply having concluded her wailing, gave me a relaxing smile after which, tenderly, requested me approximately my own losses and my worldview relating them. i presumed that this reordering of the interview used to be the main warranted factor of all. Having validated just a little her expertise, the wailer now took accountability for the consequences of her functionality. She had remodeled me right into a member of an imagined viewers, and that i now wai l i ng / fifty seven needed to be a receptacle within which the sounds and effects of the wailing will be assimilated and tested (Gergen 1997). The difficult nature of wailing as a learn subject came across expression not just during this welcome reordering of the interview but in addition within the wailer’s expectancies. Admittedly, wailing performances that have been offered on my behalf didn't continually paintings. On these few events, my ears perceived them as undifferentiated making a song that lacked the everyday depth. the instant the wailer lifted her hand from her eyes, despite the fact that, I knew that she thirsted to find my tears. Her eyes scanned for normal indications from her one-woman viewers that will characterize the confirmation of her expertise. If i didn't provide the specified reaction on the finish of her functionality, she may ship me a wondering half-smile approximately my emotions. Then, with telling accuracy, she might translate my feelings into an overview: the sadder I had turn into, the surer she was once that she had wailed good, and if I had shed no tears, she knew that she had no longer scored a 10. whilst a wailer came across that she had controlled to disillusioned my composure, she may slightly disguise her pride, announcing, for instance, “Look, you’re crying, too. ” Dina let loose a joyous cheer on the finish of her wailing functionality within the presence of one other lady, as if my tears informed her a narrative approximately herself. either ladies repeated thankful comments they'd obtained in mourners’ homes—beneficent phrases for which the tears had served as a prerequisite. Their expectation of a suitable reaction was once so obtrusive that had I despatched a sign of indifference, they could were insulted and may have terminated what were fruitful interviews. I discovered that I needed to provoke the wailers with my desolation, that's, to mimic the function that they assumed on the apartment of mourning—to create an influence of grief, to place on an act in entrance of ladies who had enacted others’ feelings. I additionally needed to produce acceptable emotional responses in my observations at homes of mourning. while I sat one of the crowd of girls and listened to the wailer as they did, I knew I needed to be at the similar emotional web page; that's, i have to wipe tears or, at the least, decrease my eyes in lachrymose silence. the following back, I infrequently needed to fake; the wailing functionality spoke to my middle and attained its affective goal. sometimes, besides the fact that, the obligation of the anthropologist received out, spurring me to split myself from chap t er 1 / fifty eight the gang and switch all my efforts towards documenting the data.

Download PDF sample

Rated 4.15 of 5 – based on 49 votes