AAA annual meeting 2018 - Palestinian Sumoud Limits and Possibilities

مشاركة وتقديم ورقة بعنوان:
Present a paper with title:
Sumoud Vis Transformations of a cultural institutions in Nazareth
صمود مقابل تحولات في مؤسسات ثقافية في الناصرة


في الاجتماع السنوي لرابطة الأثروبولجيين الأمريكية المنعقد في نوفمبر- ديسمبر 2018 في سان خوزية كاليفورنيا.


Abstract

Sumoud is a form of resistance deeply woven into the fabric of daily-life. It is an attitude expressed in action. It relates to staying and remaining. Rethinking it questioning the essential core of the Palestinian being. Sumoud symbolizes constancy and permanence and it raises up the questions what is constant in the dynamic life of the Palestinians? And what is that thing that is essential for the Palestinian being, which without it staying, and remaining do not count as Sumoud?

Trying to answer these questions I will draw on my ethnographic research in Nazareth during 2013-2014, which focused on the cultural transformations of traditional domestic gardens, called Hawakir. I will describe the transformations that occurred in this ecological-cultural institution, and through which a broader social, political and economic changes that occurred in Nazareth over the past seven decades. I will do it while paying attention to the implications for gender relations, community and class relationships, housing and urban planning Nazareth.

Nazareth was the only Palestinian city to remain in Israel after the Nakba in 1948. From a small nonimportant city it became the capital of the Palestinian citizens of Israel. Remaining inside a state wihich was on established on the destruction of Palestinian society and cities, Nazareth, in the eyes of its political leaders is seen as “the castle of Sumoud”. My ethnography exposes daily-life practices in complicated challenging reality. Understanding Sumoud vis-à-vis cultural transformations in Nazareth sheds light on Sumoud, challenge the discussion and add to it a unique contribution.

Panellists