The sacred scroll and the researcher’s body: an autoethnography of Reform Jewish ritual
This article examines the relationship between the researcher’s body and the Torah scroll (Sefer Torah) during participant observation of a Jewish holiday ritual in an Israeli Reform congregation. Using an autoethnographic approach, I show how the Reform Jewish ritual demonstrates that the body is a...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Carfax Publ.
2022
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| In: |
Journal of contemporary religion
Year: 2022, Volume: 37, Issue: 2, Pages: 299-315 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Simḥat Torah
/ Hakafah
/ Autoethnografie
/ Self-reflection
/ Reform Judaism
/ Ritual
/ Bodiliness
/ Identity
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion BH Judaism KBL Near East and North Africa |
| Further subjects: | B
Autoethnography
B Holiness B Ritual B Body B Reform Judaism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article examines the relationship between the researcher’s body and the Torah scroll (Sefer Torah) during participant observation of a Jewish holiday ritual in an Israeli Reform congregation. Using an autoethnographic approach, I show how the Reform Jewish ritual demonstrates that the body is a charged religious symbol and the bearer of family traditions and unconscious understandings of the social order. Through this encounter, I discovered how my position in fieldwork on religion is located at the intersection of my ethnographic discipline, my religious habitus, and my identity as a gay man. Reflexive analysis of my active and passive behavior during the observation offered an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the differences between myself and the congregation. Thus, I suggest that anthropologists, even when researching their culture, must be aware of the elements that make up their own identities. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-9419 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of contemporary religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2022.2060536 |