Nimrod Luz
Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Land of Israel Studies, Faculty Member
- Western Galilee College, Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty Memberadd
- Cultural Geography, Cultural Theory, Middle East Studies, Anthropology and Sociology, Urban Studies, Middle East, and 15 moreCultural Studies, Islamic Studies, Political Science, Social Theory, Religion, Islam, Anthropology of Food, Nationalism, Religious Studies, Anthropology of Religion, Cultural Heritage, Informality, Food and Nutrition, Food Studies, and Geography of Food and Eatingedit
In this paper I explore conflicts over urban sacred places while engaging with Lefebvre’s notion of the ‘right to the city’. This is achieved by harnessing his post-Marxist approach to the realm of symbolic goods and exploring the sacred... more
In this paper I explore conflicts over urban sacred places while engaging with Lefebvre’s notion of the ‘right to the city’. This is achieved by harnessing his post-Marxist approach to the realm of symbolic goods and exploring the sacred as a resource in the urban sphere. His approach helps us to examine the ways in which different actors are conversing and contesting over their right of ownership and control of their past, their heritage, and of course, their preferred urban culture. The paper follows these struggles as challenges to the top-down modern urban planning mechanism by framing them as urban informality and grey spacing. ‘Grey space’ means the position of various urban phenomena in the vaguely defined gap between the official and legal and the destroyed, evicted and illegal. Along these lines, I follow struggles of subordinate communities in Israeli cities as ways to ‘claim the city’ through the sacred. These struggles have shaped and are still shaping the urban landscape, instigating dialogues and conflicts among different groups within the urban sphere and affecting changes in urban planning and cities’ materialities. Empirically I focus on the decades long urban conflict over Hassan Bek Mosque in Tel-Aviv-Jaffa.
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This article offers the concept of ReligioCity as a way to theorize and understand both the tangible and intangible aspects of the reciprocal relations between city and religion. This theoretical notion joins together the imaginative... more
This article offers the concept of ReligioCity as a way to theorize and understand both the tangible and intangible aspects of the reciprocal relations between city and religion. This theoretical notion joins together the imaginative aspects of being religious in an urban context and the tangible aspects (materialities) of religion by privileging neither one nor the other. ReligioCity enables us to explore the ways religion and urban space are transformed together by current socio-political processes, but also to examine the ways the city’s landscape encompasses new expressions of religious materiality in the urban environment. The empirical context is drawn mostly from Acre, a multi-religious, multi-ethnic city in the north of Israel. The article further suggests ReligioCity as a theoretical concept which may advance research of both historical and contemporary cities.
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This paper explores the contested nature of scared places as a starting point for developing a research agenda for geographers of religion in the 21st century. Following a discussion of the contested nature of scared places, the paper... more
This paper explores the contested nature of scared places as a starting point for developing a
research agenda for geographers of religion in the 21st century. Following a discussion of the
contested nature of scared places, the paper theorises place and scale in the study of religion. It
is argued that by conjugating these two crucial concepts, geographers of religion (and surely
other disciplines as well) would be better able to engage with the rich socio-political-spatial
meanings of contemporary religions. Sacred places, as one of the key features of religion, serve
as an entry point into the current discussion. The empirical context and case studies are drawn
from over two decades of research in the contested region of Israel/Palestine. They serve to
illustrate my main argument that sacred places and their contested nature are central to
understanding broader socio-political processes. I will therefore briefly engage in a scalar
analysis of sacred places from the body to the global scale.
research agenda for geographers of religion in the 21st century. Following a discussion of the
contested nature of scared places, the paper theorises place and scale in the study of religion. It
is argued that by conjugating these two crucial concepts, geographers of religion (and surely
other disciplines as well) would be better able to engage with the rich socio-political-spatial
meanings of contemporary religions. Sacred places, as one of the key features of religion, serve
as an entry point into the current discussion. The empirical context and case studies are drawn
from over two decades of research in the contested region of Israel/Palestine. They serve to
illustrate my main argument that sacred places and their contested nature are central to
understanding broader socio-political processes. I will therefore briefly engage in a scalar
analysis of sacred places from the body to the global scale.
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The current global agrifood system is increasingly fragile and despite a plethora of scientific research, progress in national and global policies setting commendable goals towards more sustainable agriculture is still sluggish. This... more
The current global agrifood system is increasingly fragile and despite a plethora of scientific
research, progress in national and global policies setting commendable goals towards more
sustainable agriculture is still sluggish. This paper argues that if the efforts continue to concentrate on
farmers and rest solely on “fixing” modes of production at the farm level, the chances of arriving at
significant changes are meagre. By conjugating Lefebvre’s triad of spaces and geographic explorations
on politics of scale with data harvested over three years of qualitative research in farms, this paper
explores Israeli farmers’ conduct in the field as they face many challenges at various scales. The paper
presents their vulnerability against forces on a multiscalar level which present numerous obstacles
in operating their farms. Addressing these challenges to allow them to integrate more sustainable
modes of operation would require upscaling the debate and the taking of responsibility from all
stakeholders concerned, from the farm level to global players.
research, progress in national and global policies setting commendable goals towards more
sustainable agriculture is still sluggish. This paper argues that if the efforts continue to concentrate on
farmers and rest solely on “fixing” modes of production at the farm level, the chances of arriving at
significant changes are meagre. By conjugating Lefebvre’s triad of spaces and geographic explorations
on politics of scale with data harvested over three years of qualitative research in farms, this paper
explores Israeli farmers’ conduct in the field as they face many challenges at various scales. The paper
presents their vulnerability against forces on a multiscalar level which present numerous obstacles
in operating their farms. Addressing these challenges to allow them to integrate more sustainable
modes of operation would require upscaling the debate and the taking of responsibility from all
stakeholders concerned, from the farm level to global players.
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This article offers the concept of ReligioCity as a way to theorize and understand both the tangible and intangible aspects of the reciprocal relations between city and religion. This theoretical notion joins together the imaginative... more
This article offers the concept of ReligioCity as a way to theorize and understand both the tangible and intangible aspects of the reciprocal relations between city and religion. This theoretical notion joins together the imaginative aspects of being religious in an urban context and the tangible aspects (materialities) of religion by privileging neither one nor the other. ReligioCity, enables us to explore the ways religion and urban space are transformed together by current socio-political processes, but also to examine the ways the city’s landscape encompasses new expressions of religious materiality in the urban environment. The empirical context is drawn mostly from Acre, a multi-religious, multi-ethnic city in the north of Israel. The article further suggests ReligioCity as a theoretical concept which may advance research of both historical and contemporary cities.
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במאמר קצר זה אני בוחן נסיונות בחקלאות בת קיימא באזור הכנרת
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n ABSTRACT: In the introduction to this special section of Religion and Society, we discuss existing and potentially new intersections of border theories and religious studies in relation to two contested regions—US-Mexico and... more
n ABSTRACT: In the introduction to this special section of Religion and Society, we discuss existing and potentially new intersections of border theories and religious studies in relation to two contested regions—US-Mexico and Israel-Palestine (as part of the history of the Levant)—respectively. We argue for a recentering of borderland studies through an analysis of political theologies, affective labor, and differing configurations of religious heritage, traces, and materiality. We thus define ‘borderlands’ as translocal phenomena that emerge due to situated political/economic and affective junctures and that amplify not only translocal but also transnational prisms. To explore these issues, we put into dialogue studies on religion, borderlands, walls, and historical/contemporary conditions in the context of US-Mexico and Israel-Palestine borders. In particular, we argue for recentering analyses in light of intensifications of state control and growing militarization in contested a...
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One of the major paradoxes embedded in religion is the complex dynamics between enchantment and disenchantment. This article takes a critical look at the theoretical implications of the political d...
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Research Interests: History, Archaeology, Anthropology, Ethnography, Politics, and 3 moreWorship, Anthropological, and Indigenous
An(other) Interview with Nimrod Luz When I contacted Nimrod Luz for this interview the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel had come into force since two days. I thought time was ripe for profiting from his presence as a fellow at the Max... more
An(other) Interview with Nimrod Luz When I contacted Nimrod Luz for this interview the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel had come into force since two days. I thought time was ripe for profiting from his presence as a fellow at the Max Weber Centre in Erfurt and asking for his learned-cum-passionate opinion about the events triggered by the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision on the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah on 6 May and the police’s clearing of the Temple Mount complex on the day after. Pro..
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This paper proposes the notion of ReligioCity as an analytical category to account for religious urbanism and urban influences on religion(s). This theoretical notion allows us to explore the ways religion and urban space are transformed... more
This paper proposes the notion of ReligioCity as an analytical category to account for religious urbanism and urban influences on religion(s). This theoretical notion allows us to explore the ways religion and urban space are transformed together by current socio-political processes, but also to examine the ways the city's landscape encompasses new expressions of religious materiality in the urban environment. Taking Acre, a small multireligious and multi-ethnic city in the north of Israel the paper explores religious processions, parades, and festivities as public rituals which encompass ways of being in the city and of taking temporary control of specific city spaces while engaging with urban infrastructures. In what ways these spatial religious manifestations are dictated by urban infrastructures and at the same time influence the city and how they serve as forms of being in the city for participants? The argument is that these religious manifestations and spatializations are ways of placing religion as an identity marker, with the possibility of sustaining, projecting or even reinventing a sense of self and community in the changing landscape of cities.
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This article explores the ways in which religion(s) and religious groups are increasingly contributing to changes in the politics of planning of cities and challenge the hierarchical modern planning order. Following the notion of... more
This article explores the ways in which religion(s) and religious groups are increasingly contributing to changes in the politics of planning of cities and challenge the hierarchical modern planning order. Following the notion of heterarchy as suggesting a diversity of relationships among elements in a system, the argument is made that the religious-cum-ethnic component is becoming part of an urban habitus that influences and redefines modern urban planning. Taking the case of a recently developed gentrified religious Jewish neighborhood in Acre, a multi-ethnic and multi-religious town in northern Israel, the article follows the ways in which urban planning is being shaped by three interrelated processes: the production of space driven by forms of capitalism intertwined with local heterarchical projects of space and power; a set of social struggles over urban space; and the framing of religious and ethnic urban identity.
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This paper analyzes the conditions under which the sharing of sacred sites in Turkey is still possible despite the serious Sunnification campaign of the akp regime. I argue that ideological, cultural, and pragmatic motivations led the... more
This paper analyzes the conditions under which the sharing of sacred sites in Turkey is still possible despite the serious Sunnification campaign of the akp regime. I argue that ideological, cultural, and pragmatic motivations led the Turkish state to refrain from interfering in practices the ruling party deems sacrilegious and distasteful.
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This chapter explores the symbolic and ideological nature of public and monumental buildings in cities and offers a critical reading of the Mamlūk elite's activities and influence in and on cities. It examines the construction of... more
This chapter explores the symbolic and ideological nature of public and monumental buildings in cities and offers a critical reading of the Mamlūk elite's activities and influence in and on cities. It examines the construction of citadels, mosques, religious schools and ṣūfī lodges, and analyzes their roles and meanings in the urban landscape. The citadel became an indispensable part of the urban defense system, almost a prerequisite in the fortification dictionary of cities. The construction of a high-rise tower of very generous proportions in the middle of the gigantic citadel of Safed was a physical manifestation of the sultan's role, commitment and authority as the leader of the Mamlūk sultanate. The ṣūfī rituals - for instance, dhikr and samāʿ - unconfined by any very rigid protocol, were a provocative and constant statement as to the presence and dominance of Islam in the city. Keywords: ṣūfī rituals; citadel; Mamlūk; urban defense system
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This paper proposes the notion of ReligioCity as an analytical category to account for religious urbanism and urban influences on religion(s). This theoretical notion allows us to explore the ways religion and urban space are transformed... more
This paper proposes the notion of ReligioCity as an analytical category to account for religious urbanism and urban influences on religion(s). This theoretical notion allows us to explore the ways religion and urban space are transformed together by current socio-political processes, but also to examine the ways the city's landscape encompasses new expressions of religious materiality in the urban environment. Taking Acre, a small multireligious and multi-ethnic city in the north of Israel the paper explores religious processions, parades, and festivities as public rituals which encompass ways of being in the city and of taking temporary control of specific city spaces while engaging with urban infrastructures. In what ways these spatial religious manifestations are dictated by urban infrastructures and at the same time influence the city and how they serve as forms of being in the city for participants? The argument is that these religious manifestations and spatializations are ways of placing religion as an identity marker, with the possibility of sustaining, projecting or even reinventing a sense of self and community in the changing landscape of cities.
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Although research on pilgrimage has expanded considerably since the early 1990s, the conversation has been largely dominated by Anglophone researchers. This volume challenges the hegemony of Anglophone scholarship by considering what can... more
Although research on pilgrimage has expanded considerably since the early 1990s, the conversation has been largely dominated by Anglophone researchers. This volume challenges the hegemony of Anglophone scholarship by considering what can be learned from different national, linguistic, religious and disciplinary traditions, with the aim of fostering a global exchange of ideas.
Research Interests: Mythology And Folklore, Cultural History, Sociology, Sociology of Religion, Folklore, and 11 moreHistory of Religion, Religion and Politics, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Pilgrimage, Pilgrimage, Tourism, Travel and Tourism Industry, Pilgrimage and Tourism, Travel and Tourism, Anthropology of Religion, and Travel Tourism
In this chapter I forge links between the study of material culture (the built environment writ large) and a reading of socio-political issues in cities as a way of contributing to the study of the Mamluk period in the wider region. My... more
In this chapter I forge links between the study of material culture (the built environment writ large) and a reading of socio-political issues in cities as a way of contributing to the study of the Mamluk period in the wider region. My point of departure and main case study is the city of Jerusalem during the Mamluk period. To begin with I discuss the theoretical and empirical implications of looking at the city as a cultural process and as a landscape. Following I present the outcomes of a survey of the built environment of Jerusalem focusing on the Mamluk era with the objective of shedding light on the particular morphology of the city during this period. Based on this extensive survey I established a set of benchmarks which enabled me to unearth and understand the hitherto unexplored vernacular architecture of the city. This in-depth look at the materiality of the urban landscape is taken in this chapter further to suggest that the construction of a more nuanced lexicon of the building language, the materiality of cities, of the Mamluk period may be used to understand better a complex of urban phenomena and developments elsewhere in the Middle East. Thus, following a discussion of the vernacular building language in Mamluk Jerusalem, I examine various intricate urban issues in the region. These case studies will help clarify how the reading of the tangible city constitutes a crucial and highly helpful medium through which we can read better not just the physical layout of the city but also the socio-political and cultural dimension of urbanism.
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Abstract In recent years scholars have engaged with explorations that tried to account for the pilgrimage vs. tourism conundrum. Among the ideas that emerged was defining an integrative category under the heading of religious tourism.... more
Abstract In recent years scholars have engaged with explorations that tried to account for the pilgrimage vs. tourism conundrum. Among the ideas that emerged was defining an integrative category under the heading of religious tourism. This paper makes the argument that from a purely religious perspective pilgrimage in Islam is nothing but the one mentioned in the Quran; namely the Hajj. Therefore, it is argued, that all other religious Muslim motivated journeys constitute a different category which may be termed; religious tourism. By reframing and reconceptualizing Muslim pilgrimage which is ‘beyond the officially sacred’ as religious tourism the paper accounts for a plethora of religious voyages and the entire spectrum of Muslim religious voyages.
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In a memorial lecture for Charles Beckingham, David Morgan1evoked one of this prolific travel literature scholar's astute observations: “[T]he study of travel narratives, especially travel narratives about a culture quite different... more
In a memorial lecture for Charles Beckingham, David Morgan1evoked one of this prolific travel literature scholar's astute observations: “[T]he study of travel narratives, especially travel narratives about a culture quite different from the traveller's own, can be very revealing, not only about the culture he observed, but about the culture to which he belonged”.2This insight indeed undergirds my own approach to the descriptions of cities by both insiders and outsiders. Narratives of cities, indeed of any landscape, are but interpretative and hermeneutics texts which can be surely used to narrate the very landscape, but also as texts which may be used to understand the culture and perceptions of the narrator. Over the course of this paper, I examine two accounts (texts) of residents of Mamlūk provincial cities inal-Shām. These texts will be placed under the scrutiny of the data and the existing literature of those cities. In other words, the ‘conceptualised city’ as narrated...
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In recent years, religion, belief systems, sacred sites, and the desecularization of the world have gained attention in studies ranging from political and cultural geography to sociology, anthropology, and political sciences. This chapter... more
In recent years, religion, belief systems, sacred sites, and the desecularization of the world have gained attention in studies ranging from political and cultural geography to sociology, anthropology, and political sciences. This chapter is located at the intersection of some of these debates. It explores the relevance of the sacred in contemporary life and the importance of religion and religious landscape in sustaining personal and group identity. Specifically, it examines the role of sacred sites among minority groups as a locus of identity formation, collective memory, self-empowerment, and indeed resistance. This chapter focuses on the ways in which minority Islamic sacred sites in Israel serve as spatial metaphors. Through an analysis of the transformations of an Islamic sacred site (maqam) in the north (and periphery) of Israel, this chapter follows the ways politics of identity and minority group resistance are being performed and enacted through the sacred. Adopting a neo-Gramscian approach, this chapter reinforces the theoretical notion that landscape is essentially a political, cultural, and ideological endeavor which is rarely to be found in equilibrium. It directly addresses majority-minority relations in contemporary Israel and what seems to be a growing source of conflict in Israeli society – the evolution of a more elaborate, informed, and outspoken Palestinian identity among Arab-Israeli citizens.
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This article explores the ways in which religion(s) and religious groups are increasingly contributing to changes in the politics of planning of cities and challenge the hierarchical modern planning order. Following the notion of... more
This article explores the ways in which religion(s) and religious groups are increasingly contributing to changes in the politics of planning of cities and challenge the hierarchical modern planning order. Following the notion of heterarchy as suggesting a diversity of relationships among elements in a system, the argument is made that the religious-cum-ethnic component is becoming part of an urban habitus that influences and redefines modern urban planning. Taking the case of a recently developed gentrified religious Jewish neighborhood in Acre, a multi-ethnic and multi-religious town in northern Israel, the article follows the ways in which urban planning is being shaped by three interrelated processes: the production of space driven by forms of capitalism intertwined with local heterarchical projects of space and power; a set of social struggles over urban space; and the framing of religious and ethnic urban identity.
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This chapter explores the development of religious materiality in Jerusalem as both a crucial factor of urban development at large and as an explanatory mechanism to its highly contested geographies of encounters. The chapter theorizes... more
This chapter explores the development of religious materiality in Jerusalem as both a crucial factor of urban development at large and as an explanatory mechanism to its highly contested geographies of encounters. The chapter theorizes the city’s particularity and yet promotes the notion that its uniqueness notwithstanding the city and its religious landscapes of encounters may well serve us towards a much sought after global urban theory. Against legions of scholarly works that delineate the city’s history and present religious conflicts as its main problem this chapter adopts a longue durée approach to suggest that these unique circumstance and urban history as well as the spatializations of encounters that ensued, are the generators of the city’s uniqueness and the fundamental reason why it has become not only a case of exceptionalism but rather a paradigmatic example for comparative urbanism and urban theories.
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This paper follows and analyze the emergence and changes of sacred Muslim places in Israel/Palestine since the Islamic conquest in the Seventh century to the present. It focuses mostly on recent changes in sacred places, their... more
This paper follows and analyze the emergence and changes of sacred Muslim places in Israel/Palestine since the Islamic conquest in the Seventh century to the present. It focuses mostly on recent changes in sacred places, their spatialities and socio-political meanings since the emergence of the State of Israel in 1948 to the present.
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In this chapter I forge links between the study of material culture (the built environment writ large) and a reading of socio-political issues in cities as a way of contributing to the study of the Mamluk period in the wider region. My... more
In this chapter I forge links between the study of material culture (the built environment writ large) and a reading of socio-political issues in cities as a way of contributing to the study of the Mamluk period in the wider region. My point of departure and main case study is the city of Jerusalem during the Mamluk period. To begin with I discuss the theoretical and empirical implications of looking at the city as a cultural process and as a landscape. Following I present the outcomes of a survey of the built environment of Jerusalem focusing on the Mamluk era with the objective of shedding light on the particular morphology of the city during this period. Based on this extensive survey I established a set of benchmarks which enabled me to unearth and understand the hitherto unexplored vernacular architecture of the city. This in-depth look at the materiality of the urban landscape is taken in this chapter further to suggest that the construction of a more nuanced lexicon of the bu...
In this short essay I analyze and muse on the important role of street food as a way to enhance urban equality, rejuvenation of city's center, strengthening local economy and possible outcomes of allowing for local food and culinary... more
In this short essay I analyze and muse on the important role of street food as a way to enhance urban equality, rejuvenation of city's center, strengthening local economy and possible outcomes of allowing for local food and culinary venues to grow.
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Materiality has become a compelling register through which to examine religious manifestations and matters of belief. There is a mounting awareness among scholars of both the tangible aspects of religion and the ways in which material... more
Materiality has become a compelling register through which to examine religious manifestations and matters of belief. There is a mounting awareness among scholars of both the tangible aspects of religion and the ways in which material objects are never neutral. Following these theoretical developments, I argue that materiality can serve as a form of agency for a particular version of knowledge to become conventional and accepted as true. This emerging materiality codifies a certain version of the truth. However, such validation through matter is often challenged and categorized as fake or a myth. To illustrate my argument, I explore the newly emerging site of Rachel’s Tomb in Tiberias and the competing versions of truth surrounding it. I contend that its new materiality, which has evolved in recent years, serves as a way of validating the site’s new mythology. However, among locals, who are familiar with the site’s previous materiality, this new knowledge is pejoratively labeled as ...
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One of the major paradoxes embedded in religion is the complex dynamics between enchantment and disenchantment. This article takes a critical look at the theoretical implications of the political dynamics of enchantment by examining its... more
One of the major paradoxes embedded in religion is the complex dynamics between enchantment and disenchantment. This article takes a critical look at the theoretical implications of the political dynamics of enchantment by examining its stages in depth. We use the term “enchanted moments of place” to challenge the use of the term “enchanted” as a static historical or historiographical designation. It takes long-term ethnographic work at a recently emerging pilgrimage site in the north of Israel/Palestine commonly known as the Shrine of Mariam Bawardy, as an empirical point of departure to explore the dynamics of enchantment. We suggest an anthropological theory of enchantment that embraces an analysis of the ways time/place intermingles religious and everyday grassroots political dynamics. This perspective sheds light on the creation of sacred place during moments of renewed creativity, the reformulation of indigenous identities, the process of reinvented rituals, and the restoration and staging of material objects and place. Uncovering these moments can clarify the ways sacred places are politically voiced and spatialized by pilgrims, and appropriated by visitors and religious agents. Our analysis shows that these "enchanted moments," places are more fragile and susceptible to changes caused by macro- and micro- political shifts. Enchanted moments are more sensitive to local decision-making processes, creativity, contingencies and rivalry among native agents and their aspirations for place and territoriality.
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מסה קצרה המנתחת את אירועי האלימות בעכו מאי 2021 וממסגרת אותם אחרי דיקץ כחלק מהתנגדות פוליטית וזעם
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"The Mamluk City in the Middle East offers an interdisciplinary study of urban history, urban experience, and the nature of urbanism in the region under the rule of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). The book focuses on... more
"The Mamluk City in the Middle East offers an interdisciplinary study of urban history, urban experience, and the nature of urbanism in the region under the rule of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). The book focuses on three less-explored but politically significant cities in the Syrian region – Jerusalem, Safad (now in Israel), and Tripoli (now in Lebanon) – and presents a new approach and methodology for understanding historical cities. Drawing on diverse textual sources and intensive field surveys, Nimrod Luz adroitly reveals the character of the Mamluk city as well as various aspects of urbanism in the region, establishing the pre-modern city of the Middle East as a valid and useful lens through which to study various themes such as architecture, art history, history, and politics of the built environment. As part of this approach, Luz considers the processes by which Mamluk discourses of urbanism were conceptualized and then inscribed in the urban environment as concrete expressions of architectural design, spatial planning, and public memorialization. Offers an interdisciplinary approach and new methodologies for the study of historical cities in the Middle East Broadens the field of urban history to include approaches, theories, and understandings from the social sciences Extensive survey of the cities' landscape and the construction of an innovative methodology to study historical built environment"
Research Interests: History and Middle East
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The Politics of Sacred Places is a study of the socio-political dimensions of sacred sites in Israel–Palestine, drawing on over 20 years of in-depth ethnographic research which introduces cutting-edge theories on secularization, struggles... more
The Politics of Sacred Places is a study of the socio-political dimensions of sacred sites in Israel–Palestine, drawing on over 20 years of in-depth ethnographic research which introduces cutting-edge theories on secularization, struggles for recognition, and diversity issues.
This book focuses on contemporary sacred sites and their socio-political meanings for minorities within a hegemonic and a secularizing state-system. It argues that sacred places provide a space that is less scrutinized by the state and where alternative visions of the socio-political may be produced.
A plethora of sites and case studies are examined, including the rural shrine of Maqam abu al-Hijja in the lower Galilee, the Mosque of Hassan Bek in the heart of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and the most disputed sacred place in the region, the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem. These sites are explored through mostly a phenomenological lens and in various contexts, from the individual body to the global.
This book offers a critical-analytical study of the socio-political aspects of sacred sites in contemporary societies within the broader understanding of scale and the spatial turn in the study of religion.
This book focuses on contemporary sacred sites and their socio-political meanings for minorities within a hegemonic and a secularizing state-system. It argues that sacred places provide a space that is less scrutinized by the state and where alternative visions of the socio-political may be produced.
A plethora of sites and case studies are examined, including the rural shrine of Maqam abu al-Hijja in the lower Galilee, the Mosque of Hassan Bek in the heart of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and the most disputed sacred place in the region, the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem. These sites are explored through mostly a phenomenological lens and in various contexts, from the individual body to the global.
This book offers a critical-analytical study of the socio-political aspects of sacred sites in contemporary societies within the broader understanding of scale and the spatial turn in the study of religion.
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האוכל הוא מרחב הפעילות האנושית הבסיסי ביותר, ובוודאי החיוני ביותר והראשון במעלה לקיומם של החיים. אוכל הוא התעשייה הגדולה ביותר, המקור המרכזי הן לעונג יום יומי והנאה והן לחרדות פחד ואימה קיומית. מרכזיותו בחיינו נכרת לא רק בעובדה שבלעדיו לא... more
האוכל הוא מרחב הפעילות האנושית הבסיסי ביותר, ובוודאי החיוני ביותר והראשון במעלה לקיומם של החיים. אוכל הוא התעשייה הגדולה ביותר, המקור המרכזי הן לעונג יום יומי והנאה והן לחרדות פחד ואימה קיומית. מרכזיותו בחיינו נכרת לא רק בעובדה שבלעדיו לא נתקיים אלא באופן שבו הוא מצוי למשל בכל פעילות חברתית. נתקשה למצוא טקס או פעילות אנושית קבוצתית שאוכל אינו מרכזי בהם בין אם הוא ליבו של המפגש כסעודת ליל הסדר או בהעדרו כמו בימי צום הרמצ'אן, יום הכיפורים או איסור אכילת הבשר בעולם הנוצרי בארבעים ימי הלנט הקודמים לשבוע הפסחא. מזון הפך אותנו למי שאנחנו ומאז המהפכה החקלאית ציוויליזציות קמו ונפלו בשל מזון. יתרה מזו, החקלאות ותהליכי ייצור המזון הניעו, ועדין מניעים, את התהליכים המשמעותיים שחברות אנושיות עוברות. מחרשתו של האיכר ותבונתה של מבייתת החיטה או התירס לא רק שהם הגורם המשמעותי ביותר לשינוי הנוף בו אנו חיים אלא שהתוצרים שהעניקו לנו הם שעשו את העולם פיזית ותרבותית. החקלאות תחזקה צבאות, רוממה חברות ומהווה את הבסיס שאין בלתו לקיומן של דתות, אמנות, שירה, פוליטיקה ועוד. מתוחכמים ככל שאנחנו גם במאה ה-21 מצויה האנושות כתמיד צעד אחד מהמשבר בכל הקשור באוכל בדיוק כשם שהיו אבותינו שליקטו מזון במשך מרבית קיומו של המין האנושי.
הפוליסמיות (ריבוי המשמעויות) של האוכל היא מקור לא אכזב ללימוד העושר של הקיום האנושי. מה שהוא אוכל לאחד הוא רעל לשני אמר לוקרטיוס כבר במאה הראשונה לפני הספירה. וכך למשל נמצא ביערות האמזונס שני שבטים שחיים זה לצד זה. אצל האחד מאכל התאווה הוא הטפיר הצלוי וזה שמתועב על ידם הוא בשר הקוף ואילו אצל שכניהם מתקיים המצב ההופכי. המשמעויות שאנו מייחסים לאוכל והתובנות שלנו ביחס אליו אינן קשורות על פי רוב למרכיב תזונתי כלשהו בתוכו אלא לאופן שבו אוכל מיוצר מובן, מאורגן, מיוצר, משווק ומדומיין על ידינו כחלק מחיינו החברתיים ובוודאי כחלק מהביולוגיה שלנו. נתקשה משום כך למצוא מרכיב נוסף בחיינו שהוא כה מעשיר, מאתגר, מחבר, מפריד ועקרוני לקיום החיים עצמם. וזו בדיוק טענתו המרכזית של ספר זה שמבקש להציג לקוראים בצורה מזמינה ומעוררת תיאבון את האוכל כמרחב המרתק והמשפיע ביותר על חיינו. טענה זו נפרסת בפרקיו השונים של הספר המהווים כל אחד לעצמו דיון קצר ומעורר מחשב על הבט כזה או אחר באשר לאוכל וביחד אסופה שתכליתה לענג את הקוראים ולגרום להם לחשוב ולחשוב שוב על המפגש המתמשך שלהם איתו. פרקי הספר נוצרו בתחילה כפינות לשידור במסגרת התוכנית שלושה שיודעים בכאן תרבות ומו(נ)גשות כאן לקוראים כמזון למחשבה וכחלק מהתובנה שציבור הולך וגדל בעולם האקדמי ומחוצה לו שותפים לה והיא שאנו מחויבים לייצר מחדש את קשרינו עם האוכל שעולה על שולחננו ובדרך זו גם עם עצמנו .
הפוליסמיות (ריבוי המשמעויות) של האוכל היא מקור לא אכזב ללימוד העושר של הקיום האנושי. מה שהוא אוכל לאחד הוא רעל לשני אמר לוקרטיוס כבר במאה הראשונה לפני הספירה. וכך למשל נמצא ביערות האמזונס שני שבטים שחיים זה לצד זה. אצל האחד מאכל התאווה הוא הטפיר הצלוי וזה שמתועב על ידם הוא בשר הקוף ואילו אצל שכניהם מתקיים המצב ההופכי. המשמעויות שאנו מייחסים לאוכל והתובנות שלנו ביחס אליו אינן קשורות על פי רוב למרכיב תזונתי כלשהו בתוכו אלא לאופן שבו אוכל מיוצר מובן, מאורגן, מיוצר, משווק ומדומיין על ידינו כחלק מחיינו החברתיים ובוודאי כחלק מהביולוגיה שלנו. נתקשה משום כך למצוא מרכיב נוסף בחיינו שהוא כה מעשיר, מאתגר, מחבר, מפריד ועקרוני לקיום החיים עצמם. וזו בדיוק טענתו המרכזית של ספר זה שמבקש להציג לקוראים בצורה מזמינה ומעוררת תיאבון את האוכל כמרחב המרתק והמשפיע ביותר על חיינו. טענה זו נפרסת בפרקיו השונים של הספר המהווים כל אחד לעצמו דיון קצר ומעורר מחשב על הבט כזה או אחר באשר לאוכל וביחד אסופה שתכליתה לענג את הקוראים ולגרום להם לחשוב ולחשוב שוב על המפגש המתמשך שלהם איתו. פרקי הספר נוצרו בתחילה כפינות לשידור במסגרת התוכנית שלושה שיודעים בכאן תרבות ומו(נ)גשות כאן לקוראים כמזון למחשבה וכחלק מהתובנה שציבור הולך וגדל בעולם האקדמי ומחוצה לו שותפים לה והיא שאנו מחויבים לייצר מחדש את קשרינו עם האוכל שעולה על שולחננו ובדרך זו גם עם עצמנו .
Research Interests:
This is a book/catalog which follows and exhibition of shared sacred sites in multiple sites in New York Libraries. I was privileged to contribute two short essays on the holy land sites past and present with my friend Prof. Nurit Stadler.
Research Interests:
This book examines both specific issues and more general problems stemming from the interaction of religion, travel and tourism with hospitality and culture, as well as the implications for site management and interpretation. It explores... more
This book examines both specific issues and more general problems stemming from the interaction of religion, travel and tourism with hospitality and culture, as well as the implications for site management and interpretation. It explores pilgrimage along with issues and conflicts arising from the collision of religion, politics and tourism. This book reveals uncharted controversies and conflicts and moves beyond traditional academic approaches of 'religious tourism'. It brilliantly explores political issues, fundamentalism, commercialization and sustainability using a tourism rather than religious lens. Butler and Suntikul do a wonderful job linking complex issues and exploring sacred sites, religious conflicts, tourism development and marketing through holistic and wider sustainability interpretation.
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The Mamluk City in the Middle East offers an interdisciplinary study of urban history, urban experience, and the nature of urbanism in the region under the rule of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). The book focuses on three less-explored... more
The Mamluk City in the Middle East offers an interdisciplinary study of urban history, urban experience, and the nature of urbanism in the region under the rule of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). The book focuses on three less-explored but politically significant cities in the Syrian region – Jerusalem, Safad (now in Israel), and Tripoli (now in Lebanon) – and presents a new approach and methodology for understanding historical cities. Drawing on diverse textual sources and intensive field surveys, Nimrod Luz adroitly reveals the character of the Mamluk city as well as various aspects of urbanism in the region, establishing the pre-modern city of the Middle East as a valid and useful lens through which to study various themes such as architecture, art history, history, and politics of the built environment. As part of this approach, Luz considers the processes by which Mamluk discourses of urbanism were conceptualized and then inscribed in the urban environment as concrete expressions of architectural design, spatial planning, and public memorialization.
Offers an interdisciplinary approach and new methodologies for the study of historical cities in the Middle East
Broadens the field of urban history to include approaches, theories, and understandings from the social sciences
Extensive survey of the cities' landscape and the construction of an innovative methodology to study historical built environment
Offers an interdisciplinary approach and new methodologies for the study of historical cities in the Middle East
Broadens the field of urban history to include approaches, theories, and understandings from the social sciences
Extensive survey of the cities' landscape and the construction of an innovative methodology to study historical built environment
In the study of interfaith and multifaith encounters, one can find open debate regarding their nature and significance. While some researchers emphasize conflicts, tensions, and confrontations, others focus on interfaith collaborations... more
In the study of interfaith and multifaith encounters, one can find open debate regarding their nature and significance. While some researchers emphasize conflicts, tensions, and confrontations, others focus on interfaith collaborations and an ideal, respectful, and predominantly peaceful coexistence. It should be noted immediately that in this lecture, which is the result of several decades of research combined with healthy skepticism about the accepted conventions of the term "interfaith dialogues," the emphasis will be mainly on the aspects of dispute and conflicts characterizing these encounters. This perspective relies on theoretical conceptualizations of religion, place, and the political nature of sacred spaces that have characterized critical cultural geography since the 1990s, alongside the changes that have occurred in the modern era in light of the rise of nation-states characterized by less tolerance for heterogeneity and encounters with the religious other.
My main argument is that the social-ideological-political and the spatial are interdependent and influence each other, and examining spatial changes and emphasizing the spatial-physical-material dimension in interfaith encounters of various kinds helps us approach the (often bloody) reality of these encounters. The reality, of course, is more complex than the dichotomy between conflictual and collaborative approaches, and there are certainly many nuances around the ability for interfaith tolerance and inclusion. The more we succeed in seeing the synergy between social and spatial processes in these encounters, the better we can understand them empirically and theoretically. Therefore, in this lecture, I will begin with a discussion of the spatial turn in social research, move on to critical conceptualizations of what religion is and the questions that arise around interfaith encounters, address various potential spaces for interfaith encounters, and propose a theory for discussion based on two central components in the study of space: place and scale.
My main argument is that the social-ideological-political and the spatial are interdependent and influence each other, and examining spatial changes and emphasizing the spatial-physical-material dimension in interfaith encounters of various kinds helps us approach the (often bloody) reality of these encounters. The reality, of course, is more complex than the dichotomy between conflictual and collaborative approaches, and there are certainly many nuances around the ability for interfaith tolerance and inclusion. The more we succeed in seeing the synergy between social and spatial processes in these encounters, the better we can understand them empirically and theoretically. Therefore, in this lecture, I will begin with a discussion of the spatial turn in social research, move on to critical conceptualizations of what religion is and the questions that arise around interfaith encounters, address various potential spaces for interfaith encounters, and propose a theory for discussion based on two central components in the study of space: place and scale.
Research Interests:
במחקר המפגשים הבין-דתיים והרב-דתיים ניתן למצוא מחלוקת גלויה ביחס לטיבם ומשמעותם של אלה. בעוד שחלק מהחוקרים מדגישים קונפליקטים, מתחים ועימותים אחרים שמים את הדגש על שיתופים בין דתיים וקיום משותף אידילי, מכבד ובעיקר שלוו. יאמר מייד שבהרצאה... more
במחקר המפגשים הבין-דתיים והרב-דתיים ניתן למצוא מחלוקת גלויה ביחס לטיבם ומשמעותם של אלה. בעוד שחלק מהחוקרים מדגישים קונפליקטים, מתחים ועימותים אחרים שמים את הדגש על שיתופים בין דתיים וקיום משותף אידילי, מכבד ובעיקר שלוו. יאמר מייד שבהרצאה זו שהיא תוצאה של מחקר של כמה עשורים בשילוב סקפטיות בריאה באשר למוסכמות המקובלות במונח ל"דיאלוגים בין-דתיים" יודגשו בעיקר ההיבטים של מחלוקת והקונפליקטים המאפיינים מפגשים אלה. תפיסה זו נשענת על המשגות תיאורטיות של דת, מקום ואופיו הפוליטי של מקום קדוש המאפיינות את הגאוגרפיה-התרבותית הביקורתית מאז שנות ה-90 בד בבד עם התמורות שהתרחשו בעידן המודרני לנוכח צמיחת מדינות הלאום המאופיינות בסובלנות מעטה יותר להטרוגני ולמפגש עם האחר הדתי. טענתי המרכזית היא שהחברתי-אידיאולוגי-פוליטי והמרחבי תלויים ומשפיעים זה על זה וחקירת התמורות המרחביות והדגשת המימד המרחבי-פיזי-מטריאלי במפגשים הבין דתיים לסוגיהם השונים מסייעת לנו להתקרב למציאות (המדממת על פי רוב) של מפגשים אלה. המציאות כמובן מורכבת יותר מהדיכוטומיה שבין הגישות הקונפליקטואליות לאלו השיתופיות ומשתפות ומתקיימים אל-נכון ניואנסים רבים סביב היכולת לסובלנות והכלה בין דתית. ככל שנצליח לראות את הסינרגיה בין תהליכים חברתיים למרחביים במפגשים אלה כך נוכל להבינם אמפירית ותיאורטית. לפיכך בהרצאה זו אתחיל בדיון על המפנה המרחבי במחקר החברתי, אעבור להמשגות ביקורתיות של דת מהי והשאלות המתעוררות סביב המפגש הבין דתי, אעסוק במרחבים שונים פוטנציאליים למפגשים בין דתיים, ואציע תיאוריה לדיון המבוססת על שני מרכיבים מרכזיים בחקר המרחב: מקום ומדרג.
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An(other) Interview with Nimrod Luz When I contacted Nimrod Luz for this interview the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel had come into force since two days. I thought time was ripe for profiting from his presence as a fellow at the Max... more
An(other) Interview with Nimrod Luz When I contacted Nimrod Luz for this interview the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel had come into force since two days. I thought time was ripe for profiting from his presence as a fellow at the Max Weber Centre in Erfurt and asking for his learned-cum-passionate opinion about the events triggered by the Israeli Supreme Court's decision on the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah on 6 May and the police's clearing of the Temple Mount complex on the day after. Prof. Luz is not one to shy away from speaking his mind on Benjamin Netanyahu's idea of national defense. Yet he had just released a long interview with Susanne Rau about the Meron catastrophe and thus I was prepared for a kind refusal or a tactical deferral. Instead, he promptly whatsapped me back by posing only one condition: that "we take a good coffee for you, a tea for me, and then walk and talk to live up to our great teacher Socrates." Actually, Socrates' legendary style of interview consisted of a caffeine-free ambulatory practice but, after almost eleven months of lockdown, coffee shops and bars had opened again in Erfurt. The city lured us into the good old habit that, according to both of us, I guess, made urbanity a most formidable invention of our social species and thus a sorely missed one.
Research Interests:
On April 30, 2021 during the biggest pilgrimage in Israel no less than 45 people were crushed to death and hundreds were wounded. This catastrophe found me while I am working on a book on the politics of the sacred and part of a research... more
On April 30, 2021 during the biggest pilgrimage in Israel no less than 45 people were crushed to death and hundreds were wounded. This catastrophe found me while I am working on a book on the politics of the sacred and part of a research group (urbanity and religion) at the Max Weber Kolleg at Erfurt University. Prof. Susanne Rau challenged me with some astute questions about this event and this is the outcome of our Q&A - in this short essay I make the connections among pilgrimage, religion, infrastructures against the logic of ethnocracy and current political situation in Israel
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In describing the state of faith in the modern era, Friedrich Schiller spoke of the ―de-divinization of the world, while Max Weber referred to this same development as ―disenchantment. For Weber, this phenomenon stands at the very heart... more
In describing the state of faith in the modern era, Friedrich Schiller spoke of the ―de-divinization of the world, while Max Weber referred to this same development as ―disenchantment. For Weber, this phenomenon stands at the very heart of contemporary Western culture, as it reflects the historical processes by which nature and all areas of human experience are steadily becoming less mysterious and more fathomable and quantifiable. That said, in recent years scholars not only challenge these assumptions but also suggest that modernity is enchanted, in its own right. This critique of Weber and other founding fathers of the field is tied to the shifting meaning of the term ―modernity in the works of postmodern and/or postcolonial researchers, who contend that the binary approach was more ideological than real. So, in contrast to previous understandings under the modern-secular modern state enchantment is still a relevant currency and God seems to still walk with us in our daily modern life. Taking this stand into the realm of practiced and public religion that is the sacred I look at enchanted sacred sites among minority communities as places where current sociopolitical processes of identity politics are materializing and influencing activities therein. My argument in this paper in that as contemporary nationalism has been fragmented and following other markers of identity has lost their relevancy in their place social relations have become saturated with shifting cultural signs and symbols. Against this void and particularly amongst marginalized communities for which the state and nationalism hold less appeal there is a growing sense of insecurity. Thus, counter movements and cultural-political ideas are being formed and dictate innovative interpretations and approaches which challenge the nation-state hegemonic positions and impositions. The empirical context of the work is drawn from a multi-sited analysis of sacred sites within the Israel/Palestine context. Specifically I will address the emerging shrine of Mariam Bouardi in Ibbelin and the newly founded tomb of Rachel in Tiberias .
Research Interests:
This lecture was written following a request of a few young scholars who are engaged with Materiality and assemblage theories of cities. I tried to rise to the challenge and say a few words of my own experience and engagement with this... more
This lecture was written following a request of a few young scholars who are engaged with Materiality and assemblage theories of cities. I tried to rise to the challenge and say a few words of my own experience and engagement with this theoretical milieu. Thank you Dr. Elisa Farinacci and Dr. Valentina Gamberi for this challenge.:)
The extraordinary power of thinking spatially to explain social processes and actions has inspired a material turn in the study of the urban and a growing engagement with the phenomenological aspects of materiality. Materiality becomes a compelling register wherein to examine urban manifestations, and account for and interact with various structures of social life particularly within cities (Morgan, 2010). There is a mounting awareness, not only of the tangible aspects of our cities, but also of the way material objects are never neutral and devoid of social context or personal subjectivities (Navaro-Yashin 2009, 2012; Knott, Krech and Meyer, 2016). Within the urban context, material aspects become viable and, further explored, can account for both materiality and culture through the conceptualization of the tangible and the phantasmatic in unison by privileging neither one nor the other (Navaro-Yashin, 2012). Thus, a study of a variety of urban materialities, be it a plaza, a wall, religious landmarks, dogs leashes or the entire city at that, provides a framework to try and ask ourselves how these artifacts help us account for a better understanding of cities through the prism of human-non human relations. That said, as part of this endeavor I would hope to voice a few of my theoretical reservations and hiatus encountered in the ethnographic field.
The extraordinary power of thinking spatially to explain social processes and actions has inspired a material turn in the study of the urban and a growing engagement with the phenomenological aspects of materiality. Materiality becomes a compelling register wherein to examine urban manifestations, and account for and interact with various structures of social life particularly within cities (Morgan, 2010). There is a mounting awareness, not only of the tangible aspects of our cities, but also of the way material objects are never neutral and devoid of social context or personal subjectivities (Navaro-Yashin 2009, 2012; Knott, Krech and Meyer, 2016). Within the urban context, material aspects become viable and, further explored, can account for both materiality and culture through the conceptualization of the tangible and the phantasmatic in unison by privileging neither one nor the other (Navaro-Yashin, 2012). Thus, a study of a variety of urban materialities, be it a plaza, a wall, religious landmarks, dogs leashes or the entire city at that, provides a framework to try and ask ourselves how these artifacts help us account for a better understanding of cities through the prism of human-non human relations. That said, as part of this endeavor I would hope to voice a few of my theoretical reservations and hiatus encountered in the ethnographic field.
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הרצאה זו עוסקת במה שקראתי לו המהפכה העירונית השניה. בהרצאה זו אני סוקר את התמורות בערים מאז המהפכה התעשיתית על רקע השינויים בערים עצמם והתיאוריות וההסברים השונים שהציגו הוגים מרכזיים לתופעות העירוניות החדשות. ההרצאה נכתבה לאוניברסיטה... more
הרצאה זו עוסקת במה שקראתי לו המהפכה העירונית השניה. בהרצאה זו אני סוקר את התמורות בערים מאז המהפכה התעשיתית על רקע השינויים בערים עצמם והתיאוריות וההסברים השונים שהציגו הוגים מרכזיים לתופעות העירוניות החדשות. ההרצאה נכתבה לאוניברסיטה המשודרת בגלי צה"ל במסגרת תוכניות האוניברסיטה המשודרת מסע סביב רעיון ובמקרה זה העיר. תודה למאיה גאיר על ההגהה וההצעות השונות לתיקון ולידידתי מאיה להט קרמן על הדבקות בנסיון להעשיר את עולמנו ולתת עדין מקום של כבוד להגות, מחשבה מעמיקה וחקירה אקדמית
This is a keynote lecture (in Hebrew) due for the annual conservation conference at the Western Galilee College. The lecture makes the connections between Taylor's politics of recognition and multiculturalism in the mixed Israeli city of... more
This is a keynote lecture (in Hebrew) due for the annual conservation conference at the Western Galilee College. The lecture makes the connections between Taylor's politics of recognition and multiculturalism in the mixed Israeli city of Acre through the prism of religious sects sacred sites. Taking the Lababidi mosque as a case in point I suggest that in the current ethnocratic logic of urban planning any steps towards Taylor's multiculturalism cannot be accomplished without delaying or thwarting in the urban scale the might of the ethnocratic state. Drawing on the concept of the "right to the city" I suggest that this might be achieved through understanding and accepting different heritage narratives and memories in the urban landscape.
In his seminal work on (1963) Levi-Strauss suggests that totemism covers relations, posed ideologically, between two series; one natural, one cultural. Thus, the totem becomes the ideological image par excellence because it is the image... more
In his seminal work on (1963) Levi-Strauss suggests that totemism covers relations, posed ideologically, between two series; one natural, one cultural. Thus, the totem becomes the ideological image par excellence because it is the image by which cultures and societies naturalize themselves (Mitchell, 2005). In this paper I want to explore borders and borderlands as totems and part of a totemic system. That is, I want to follow the ways in which the construction of borders and borderlands becomes naturalize by the work of culture and creation of totemic systems. Focusing on the Israeli Separation Wall I want to argue that it has become an iconic and conspicuous totemic landmark not only of the conflict but of the two opposing nations. Following its construction in 2002 Different forms of veneration both secular and religious are being performed therein on both side of this barrier in the shape of pilgrimage and the construction of newly founded sacred sites. In this paper, I explore the religious and quasi-religious activities inspired by this totemic border and borderland through several case studies: the ancient Tomb of Rachel the Matriarch, the newly founded Christian site Our Lady of the Wall and 2004 exhibition of Artists without Walls in Abu Dis on both sides of the Wall. These case studies would illustrate my overarching argument on the Totemic nature of borders.
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This lecture presents reflections on my project of sacred places and its development and theoretical evolution over the 15 years I have been engaged in this research
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In recent years there has been a cornucopia of changes and activities in the Israeli urban landscape revolving the emergence, renovation and re-interpretations of urban sacred sites. Drawing on Weber’s conceptualization of Charisma as... more
In recent years there has been a cornucopia of changes and activities in the Israeli urban landscape revolving the emergence, renovation and re-interpretations of urban sacred sites. Drawing on Weber’s conceptualization of Charisma as that which operates from the margins which are less orchestrated and canonized and socio-political boundaries are more open to changes in this paper I explore two sacred sites that have reappeared in recent years and emerged on the urban landscape in the Israeli periphery against initial authorities’ objections. Following recent theoretical of Yiftachel’s gray spacing and Roy’s informality I argue in this paper that religion is becoming a growing factor and a frame of reference for mostly subaltern groups to claim their ‘right to the city’ and influencing the urban milieu. Further, through the case of the Lababidi Mosque in Acre and the Tomb of Rachel in Tiberias I want to suggest that religionization processes from below are becoming paramount and highly influential in shaping the urban landscape and as part of the growing importance of informality in planning contemporary cities and the construction of gray spaces
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This lecture focuses on a restoration project of a sacred Islamic (hence Palestinian) place in Israel. Specifically, I examine the mosque of Hassan Bey in Tel Aviv Jaffa from a re-theorized cultural geographical stance. That is, within an... more
This lecture focuses on a restoration project of a sacred Islamic (hence Palestinian) place in Israel. Specifically, I examine the mosque of Hassan Bey in Tel Aviv Jaffa from a re-theorized cultural geographical stance. That is, within an understanding that defines culture as a field of contestation indeed a power and political discourse, which informs and creates a certain spatiality. (Jackson, 1989; Mitchell, 2001; Williams, 1977) I demonstrate how the restoration project negotiates and overcomes state control over the construction of minority ‘liuex de mémoire’. I further explore the ways in which this project evoke nostalgic feelings for the lost land of Palestine and conclude by assessing its importance as agency both forming and promoting a minority group identity and a memory/history within a hegemonic and modernistic state project.
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The question of sharing and contestation in and of sacred sites has been perplexing and occupying scholars for a long while now (Eade and Sallnow, 1991; Bowman, 1993?). In this lecture we show a different configuration. We demonstrate... more
The question of sharing and contestation in and of sacred sites has been perplexing and occupying scholars for a long while now (Eade and Sallnow, 1991; Bowman, 1993?). In this lecture we show a different configuration. We demonstrate that the shared nature of a sacred place in the process of institutionalization can be transformed. Sacred places in their process of ‘becoming’ are susceptible to changes that would alter them from a shared multi religious site to excluding place, followed by the construction of religio-cultural boundaries and limitations. Our point of departure is the emerging shrine of Mariam Baouardy, a Christian veneration site in the small Galilean village of Ibbelin. Mariam Baouardy was professed Carmelite nun which according to textual and oral traditions endured harsh supernatural adversities, diabolic possessions, and stigmata. She was born in Ibbelin on January 5, 1846 and died in Bethlehem on August 26, 1878. In 1983 she was beatified by Pope John Paul II, an act which sustained a growing pilgrimage movement to her birthplace and a formation of a cult worship therein. The site which is to be found in its formation charismatic stage is currently drawing mostly women from all three monotheist religions in the region. By showing the reconstruction process, the building of the alter, the creation of rituals, the relations between clerics, pilgrims and citizens we show how the sharing nature reinforced during the early stages (charismatic) are currently changing in tandem with construction of more solidified boundaries, and conflicts which follow, as we argue, the maturation of the site and the emergence of a more canonized understanding therein.
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In this lecture I explore Maqam abu al-Hijja, a small Muslim shrine located in the central part of the lower Galilee. Taking a longue duree approach I follow the site and the man connected to it and the village community of Kaukab abu... more
In this lecture I explore Maqam abu al-Hijja, a small Muslim shrine located in the central part of the lower Galilee. Taking a longue duree approach I follow the site and the man connected to it and the village community of Kaukab abu al-Hijja which cultivates the site. Using a multi-disciplinary approach I follow the mythical and historical figure of Abu al-HIjja and the development of the site in which he is venerated. I explore themes of change in the sacred landscape and use them as ways to understand a range of socio-political processes. Particularly, I explore the ways pilgrims are constructing the image of Abu al-Hijja as a venerated saint and performers of miracles (Karamat). Further, through the interviews, talks and on-going field survey over the last 15 years I endeavor to reconstruct the changes this site, persona and village is going as part of a range of internal and external factors and developments.
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This is a short talk discussing fortresses and approaches to fortifications within a comparative perspective conflating Crusader period and current Israel - the talk was delivered at the occasion of a book launch at Kinneret College.... more
This is a short talk discussing fortresses and approaches to fortifications within a comparative perspective conflating Crusader period and current Israel - the talk was delivered at the occasion of a book launch at Kinneret College. Kudos to my friend Motti Aviam, the editor of the book
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בספרות המחקר הגאוגרפית העירונית נמצא צורות מיון וחלוקה שונות ומגוונות לערים היסטוריות ובנות זמננו. אך בכל החלוקות השונות על בסיס מורפולוגי, תרבותי, פוליטי, היסטורי, תרבותי נצבת קטגוריה או מודל עירוני ששונה תכלית שינוי מהחלוקות האחרות... more
בספרות המחקר הגאוגרפית העירונית נמצא צורות מיון וחלוקה שונות ומגוונות לערים היסטוריות ובנות זמננו. אך בכל החלוקות השונות על בסיס מורפולוגי, תרבותי, פוליטי, היסטורי, תרבותי נצבת קטגוריה או מודל עירוני ששונה תכלית שינוי מהחלוקות האחרות ולתוכו נמזגות ערים במרחבים גאוגרפים נבדלים בתקופות היסטוריות שונות ותחת השפעות כלכליות פוליטיות נבדלות למודל אחד א-היסטורי וא-גאוגרפי תחת הכותרת: העיר המוסלמית. דוקא האסלאם כדת, כתרבות, כציוויליזציה זכה להיות המרכיב המרכזי שלפי תפיסה זו הוא הגורם המכריע והמשפיע על ערים הנמצאות בתחומו. במסגרת הרצאה זו ברצוני לעסוק במורכבות ובבעייתיות של פרדיגמה מחשבתית זו ולהציע מסגרת מחשבתית תיאורטית אחרת לחקר הערים במרחב המזרח תיכוני תחת שלטון האסלאם. לצורך כך אטען, כי ההתייחסות לערים תחת הכותרת העיר המוסלמית היא פרדיגמה מחשבתית שביסוסה האמפירי דל במיוחד ולא רק שאין בה להוביל להבנה טובה יותר של אורבניזם בעולם המוסלמי מדובר במודל שפגיעתו והשלכותיו היו שליליות במיוחד. בחלקה האמפירי של הרצאה זו אנתח את אחד המרכיבים המורפולוגיים המרכזיים בעיר היא שכונת המגורים. דרך הצגת תפיסות מחקריות שונות ביחס לשכונה והשוואתן לממצא האמפירי שלי מירושלים הממלוכית אבקש להראות כי השכונה היא אמנם מרחב פיסי אך דרכי הייצוג שלה הן בקרב התושבים והן במחקר קשורות בין השאר לתפיסות תרבותיות של תושבי העיר והחוקרים גם יחד. לסיכום אציג מספר אבחנות ומסקנות באשר לתקפותו של מודל העיר המוסלמית, השלכותיו על התפתחות המחקר ואשוב ואציע פרדיגמה מחקרית שונה לבחון בה את העיר במרחב העולם המוסלמי.
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This lecture addresses a number of empirical case studies drawn from my Politics of the Sacred Project and presenting them through a Neo-Gramscian lens. My lecture is an attempt to formulate the theoretical approach and contextual... more
This lecture addresses a number of empirical case studies drawn from my Politics of the Sacred Project and presenting them through a Neo-Gramscian lens. My lecture is an attempt to formulate the theoretical approach and contextual framing of this project along with my fruitful and rewarding collaboration with Prof. Nurit Stadler on issues of the sacred. My main argument is that the activities of minority communities within and without sacred sites need be seen as part of larger struggles for identity, empowerment, and resistance in the context of the secular-national state. It is also part of trying to frame an agenda for geography of religion for the 21st century ....
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How do places become sacred? How does the process of concretization of an oral tradition take place? and mostly why did Sultan Baybars constructed a Muslim shrine in this location commemorating a contested Muslim tradition which locates... more
How do places become sacred? How does the process of concretization of an oral tradition take place? and mostly why did Sultan Baybars constructed a Muslim shrine in this location commemorating a contested Muslim tradition which locates the tomb of Moses in this very location? In this lecture I engage with these question and evoke the idea of religio-political background as a strong motive behind the construction and creation of a counter-Crusade sacred map and demonstrate as per usual the crucial important of space to any social and political endeavor
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Modern urban planning, characterized by a rational, centralistic and superimposed approach to urban design, is becoming increasingly vulnerable to gray spaces and informal activities (Roy and AlSayyad, 2004; Roy, 2005, 2009; Yiftachel,... more
Modern urban planning, characterized by a rational, centralistic and superimposed approach to urban design, is becoming increasingly vulnerable to gray spaces and informal activities (Roy and AlSayyad, 2004; Roy, 2005, 2009; Yiftachel, 2009a). Rapid urban growth is gradually transforming many cities around the world. In this socio-spatial process, various minority groups whose voices were formerly weak or silent in the modern urban politics are challenging the landscapes, and through them to speak and to emerge as more powerful local players (Castell, 1983). These groups are voicing their claims against the power of neo-liberal logic that is paramount in contemporary urban planning based primarily on maximizing growth, cost efficiency and accumulation (Harvey, 1989). In this context, religion is becoming a preferable platform that serves to mobilize such groups within the urban sphere (AlSayyad and Massoumi, 2010; Beaumont and Barker, 2011; Tong and Kong, 2000; Garbin, 2012). Religion provides a useful framework for competing narratives and spatial logics as well as for the construction of new political geographies in the city. Thus, various distinct groups weave new patterns in urban space as ways of claiming the city through religiously based identity politics (Hervieu-Leger, 2002, Orsi, 1985). To uncover this phenomenon, in this lecture I ask: How does religion serve as a driver for claiming city spaces and urban transformation? I explore how religious practices, discourse and buildings are used by religious minorities to claim the city and to participate more fully in the urban sphere. In contrast to Simmel’s (1903) and Webers’ (1921) conceptualization of the “modern city” as a shared rationalized space, characterized by a “gathering of strangers,” most of whom are muted, unheard and marginalized by strong formal, bureaucratic forces, I demonstrate that in current cities, religion serves as identity tool for different groups, a force that enables citizens to define, and express their home and presence via gray spaces (Perera, 2009). To explain how this trend is preformed, I analyze the case of the Lababidi mosque in the city of Acre in northern Israel. Additionally, I want to narrate the reinscribing of the Lababidi mosque unto the urban landscape against the background of my on-going research project with Prof. Nurit Stadler: “Enchanted Places on the Margins” (http://sacredplaces.huji.ac.il/).
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This short review engages with a new book which looks into past and contemporary urbanism through construction of an theory of religious urbanism.
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In a recent issue of City (March 20, 2016), Yiftachel and Bonano jointly muse on the uniqueness vs. ordinary nature of Jerusalem. Yiftachel, borrowing from Borges, suggests seeing Jerusalem as Aleph, a template upon which critical new... more
In a recent issue of City (March 20, 2016), Yiftachel and Bonano jointly muse on the uniqueness vs. ordinary nature of Jerusalem. Yiftachel, borrowing from Borges, suggests seeing Jerusalem as Aleph, a template upon which critical new urban theories may be based, and Bonano approaches Jerusalem as a paradigm when he offers, following Agamben, a theory of "whatever urbanism" based on ideas of the city. Jerusalem has surely never been an ordinary city and yet, as this edited volume reminds us, it was always inhabited by ordinary people who sought in their very different and resourceful ways to live their lives within its unique urban setting. Intriguingly titled Ordinary Jerusalem, this voluminous collection, the first fruit of an ERC funded project, includes work by the two editors and thirty-seven scholars from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds who together paint a variegated, original and thought-provoking canvas of 1840-1940 Jerusalem. Two key questions guide the individual chapters as well as the book's conclusion: Is Jerusalem an ordinary city? And: can we better understand its history through a local or global approach? These questions are taken on separately in each of the chapters, arranged in four sections and premised on that Jerusalem can only be studied by "ordinary" research. The book thus offers a new methodology for reading the city, through unpublished archival materials in different languages scattered throughout the world.
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Medieval Jerusalem: Forging an Islamic City in Spaces Sacred to Christians and
Jews, by Jacob Lassner
Jews, by Jacob Lassner
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This chapter engages with the recent transformations in the hagio-geography of Muslim sacrd sites against recent socio-political processes. It also narrated the evolution of a sacred Muslim geography within a longue duree approach. The... more
This chapter engages with the recent transformations in the hagio-geography of Muslim sacrd sites against recent socio-political processes. It also narrated the evolution of a sacred Muslim geography within a longue duree approach. The chapter is part of a wonderful initiative of Chen, Hacker and Stadler in an edited volume under the title: Sacred places in the Holy Land
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This paper seeks to further our understanding regarding the role of sacred places in conflicted urban milieus and the ways these sites shape contemporary cities in conflict. In particular, it explains the importance of sanctity and sacred... more
This paper seeks to further our understanding regarding the role of sacred places in conflicted urban milieus and the ways these sites shape contemporary cities in conflict. In particular, it explains the importance of sanctity and sacred sites in Jerusalem in dictating not only the nature of urban conflicts and daily management of cities in increasingly globalized and religiously radicalized urban milieu. To do so, the paper looks into the ways the most venerated and holy Islamic site in Jerusalem, Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) is being produced, represented and perceived not only as central religious Islamic symbol, but also as a national symbol and as a tool for minority struggle. The production of the al-Aqsa mosque both as a holy (globalized) Islamic site and as a mythical place for ethno-national Palestinian revival is explored and analyzed through a variety of qualitative methods and mostly through in-depth interview with Palestinian leaders and public figures. Indeed, the site is explored and understood not only as a religious most revered landmark but also as a spatial metaphor of resistance within the context of an urban and national struggle. To conclude, the paper explores the implications of religious resurgence on spatial urban struggles and daily conduct.
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In this chapter I forge links between the study of material culture (the built environment writ large) and a reading of socio-political issues in cities as a way of contributing to the study of the Mamluk period in the wider region. My... more
In this chapter I forge links between the study of material culture (the built environment writ large) and a reading of socio-political issues in cities as a way of contributing to the study of the Mamluk period in the wider region. My point of departure and main case study is the city of Jerusalem during the Mamluk period. To begin with I discuss the theoretical and empirical implications of looking at the city as a cultural process and as a landscape. Following I present the outcomes of a survey of the built environment of Jerusalem focusing on the Mamluk era with the objective of shedding light on the particular morphology of the city during this period. Based on this extensive survey I established a set of benchmarks which enabled me to unearth and understand the hitherto unexplored vernacular architecture of the city. This in-depth look at the materiality of the urban landscape is taken in this chapter further to suggest that the construction of a more nuanced lexicon of the building language, the materiality of cities, of the Mamluk period may be used to understand better a complex of urban phenomena and developments elsewhere in the Middle East. Thus, following a discussion of the vernacular building language in Mamluk Jerusalem, I examine various intricate urban issues in the region. These case studies will help clarify how the reading of the tangible city constitutes a crucial and highly helpful medium through which we can read better not just the physical layout of the city but also the socio-political and cultural dimension of urbanism.
In this paper, I explore the field of Islamic pilgrimage studies and follows some of the changes taking place in pilgrimage and religious tourism studies in Islam and among Islamic communities around the globe. My entry point to the field... more
In this paper, I explore the field of Islamic pilgrimage studies and follows some of the changes taking place in pilgrimage and religious tourism studies in Islam and among Islamic communities around the globe. My entry point to the field is not with pilgrimage per se but rather as a cultural geographer who explores the sacred and sacred locations and how they are understood, shaped within perpetual ‘process of becoming’. Hence, this paper is informed mostly by cultural geographical theories of places and pilgrimage as conceptualized and theorized in anthology of religion. The paper’s first section theorize the field of Islamic pilgrimage as a subsection of pilgrimage studies and anthropology of Islam. Following is a section that considers the main developments within Islam as a religious tradition regarding pilgrimage. The third section sketches briefly the many faces of contemporary Islamic pilgrimage. In closing the paper sums up the major developments in the field and allow for a plausible agenda for future directions.