Can Jews Become Farmers? Rurality, Peasantry and Cultural Identity in the World of the Rural Jew in Nineteenth-Century Eastern Europe
01 Oct 2013-Rural History-economy Society Culture (Cambridge University Press)-Vol. 24, Iss: 02, pp 161-175
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the influence of the agricultural occupation on the shaping of a unique peasant cultural identity among these rural Jews and the ways they coped with the accompanying religious, social and cultural implications.
Abstract: Based on conventional learning and supported in no small measure by stereotypes, agriculture as a vocation was not considered as part of the occupational profile of Jewish society in Eastern Europe until the Second World War. However, various studies show that in different regions in this area, primarily Lithuania, White Russia, north eastern Poland, and Bessarabia, tens of thousands of Jews made a living from direct engagement in various branches of agriculture, including field crops, orchards, lake fishing, etc. These Jews lived mainly in the rural areas and were a factor, and at times a highly significant one, in the local demographic and economic structure. The first part of this article examines the question whether these Jews, who were part of the general rural society living in the countryside, developed a certain type of rural cultural identity. This question is discussed by examining various aspects of their attitude towards nature. The second part of the article considers the possible influence of the agricultural occupation on the shaping of a unique peasant cultural identity among these rural Jews and the ways they coped with the accompanying religious, social and cultural implications.
Citations
More filters
14 citations
Journal Article•
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors synthesize the phenomenon of the wartime exile of Slovenes to neighbouring countries and illustrate it using children's experiences using a combination of classical historical methodology and oral history, based on the relevant historical literature, an analysis of historical materials from throughout the entire post-war era, and various oral testimonies obtained from people in their later years.
Abstract: Slovenian historiography has to a large degree ignored children and childhood. This disregard seems unjustified, since the lives of young people offer us valuable and often alternative insights into various periods of Slovenian history. The author synthesizes the phenomenon of the wartime exile of Slovenes to neighbouring countries and illustrates it using children's experiences. Research of children's experiences of war and exile reflects both the dynamics of wartime migration and the consequences in the Slovenian cultural area. The paper on children's experiences of exile is placed in the socio-historical context of the Second World War. In terms of methodology it uses a combination of classical historical methodology and oral history; it is based on the relevant historical literature, an analysis of historical materials from throughout the entire post-war era, and various oral testimonies obtained from people in their later years.
1 citations
References
More filters
Book•
[...]
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that writing is an act of identity in which people align themselves with socio-culturally shaped subject positions, and thereby play their part in reproducing or challenging dominant practices and discourses, and the values, beliefs and interests which they embody.
Abstract: Writing is not just about conveying ‘content’ but also about the representation of self. (One of the reasons people find writing difficult is that they do not feel comfortable with the ‘me’ they are portraying in their writing. Academic writing in particular often poses a conflict of identity for students in higher education, because the ‘self’ which is inscribed in academic discourse feels alien to them.) The main claim of this book is that writing is an act of identity in which people align themselves with socio-culturally shaped subject positions, and thereby play their part in reproducing or challenging dominant practices and discourses, and the values, beliefs and interests which they embody. The first part of the book reviews recent understandings of social identity, of the discoursal construction of identity, of literacy and identity, and of issues of identity in research on academic writing. The main part of the book is based on a collaborative research project about writing and identity with mature-age students, providing: a case study of one writer’s dilemmas over the presentation of self; a discussion of the way in which writers’ life histories shape their presentation of self in writing; an interview-based study of issues of ownership, and of accommodation and resistance to conventions for the presentation of self; linguistic analysis of the ways in which multiple, often contradictory, interests, values, beliefs and practices are inscribed in discourse conventions, which set up a range of possibilities for self-hood for writers. The book ends with implications of the study for research on writing and identity, and for the learning and teaching of academic writing. The book will be of interest to students and researchers in the fields of social identity, literacy, discourse analysis, rhetoric and composition studies, and to all those concerned to understand what is involved in academic writing in order to provide wider access to higher education.
1,315 citations
Book•
22 Feb 1985
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative analysis of the various struggles for national identity in nineteenth-century Europe is presented, focusing on the decisive phase of 'national renaissance', when small groups of committed patriots successfully generated mass support.
Abstract: This book is a revised translation of two works by Miroslav Hroch, which together form a pioneering comparative analysis of the various struggles for national identity in nineteenth-century Europe. It is concerned with the decisive phase of 'national renaissance', when small groups of committed patriots successfully generated mass support. When and why was their propaganda effective? The author attempts to answer this fundamental question by locating the patriots within the contemporary social structure, and uses data derived from many different nationalisms. The work is divided into three sections; a theoretical examination of the origins of nationalism and nation-hood, a quantitative survey of the social and territorial structure of the patriots of eight representative national movements, and a comparative analysis of the social and professional groups that formed the milieu of patriotism. Numerous statistical tables and maps illuminate the text, which forms one of the most significant studies of the nationalist phenomenon to be published in recent years.
456 citations
TL;DR: The authors examine the problems that flow from a viewpoint that severs human beings and human activities from their place in nature, and present a set of essays that examine these problems from a human-centric viewpoint.
Abstract: Modern conceptions of nature tend to be flawed because too often they fail to take account of the influence of people. The essays in this text examine the problems that flow from a viewpoint that severs human beings and human activities from their place in nature.
405 citations
Book•
01 Oct 1993
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a survey of the place of culture in the context of cultural geography and the role of the author and authority in the new cultural geographies of the world.
Abstract: 1. Introduction: Representing the Place of Culture Part 1. On Representation in Cultural Geography 2. Author and Authority: Writing the New Cultural Geography 3. Sites of Representation: Place, Time and the Discourse of the Other 4. Spectacle and Text: Landscape Metaphors in Cultural Geography 5. The Lie that Blinds: Destabilizing the Text of Landscape Part 2. On Representing Residential Landscapes 6. Re-Valuing the House 7. Public Housing in Single-Industry Towns: Changing Landscapes of Paternalism 8. Co-Operative Housing as a Moral Landscape: Re-examining "the Postmodern City" 9. Myths and Meanings of Gentrification Part 3. On Representing Institutional Cultures 10. "This Heaven Gives Me Migraines": The Problems and Promise of Landscapes of Leisure 11. The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development: the Culture Building Process within an Institution 12. Multiculturalism: Representing a Canadian Institution 13. Representing Power: The Politics and Poetics of Urban Form in the Kandyan Kingdom Part 4. On Representing Cultural Geography 14. Representing Space: Space, Scale and Culture in Social Science 15. Interventions in the Historical Geography of Modernity: Social Theory, Spatiality and the Politics of Representation 16. Reading, Community and a Sense of Place 17. Epilogue
356 citations