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Exploring the roles of Muslim guards and guides in Jewish cemeteries in Morocco, Cory Thomas Pechan Driver suggests that these custodians use performances of ritual and caring acts for Jewish graves for multiple reasons. Imazighen [Berbers] stress their close ties with Jews in order to create a moral self intentionally set apart from the mono-ethically Arab and mono-religiously Muslim Morocco. Other subjects, and particularly women, use their ties with Jewish sites to harness power and prestige in their communities. Others still may care for these grave sites to express grief for a close Jewish friend or adoptive family. In examining these motives, Driver not only documents the flow of material and spiritual capital across religious lines, but also moves beyond Muslim memory of the past on the one hand and Jewish dread of the future on the other to think about the Muslim/Jewish present in Morocco.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction: Teaching Me How to Pray.- Chapter 2. Orientation: Arrival and Framing the Work of Ethnography.- Chapter 3. Moroccan Muslims Locating Moroccan Jews in Time and Space.- Chapter 4. Passover Professionals.- Chapter 5. Guards: Building Muslim Authority in Jewish Cemeteries.- Chapter 6. Drinking the Milk of Trust: A Performance of Authenticity.- Chapter 7. Blessings and the Business of Cemetery Tourism.- Chapter 8. Conclusion: Changing Flavor of the Milk of Trust.
About the author
Cory Thomas Pechan Driver is Professor at the Center for International Education Exchange, teaching on the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and religion in modern Morocco and the Maghreb region.
Summary
Exploring the roles of Muslim guards and guides in Jewish cemeteries in Morocco, Cory Thomas Pechan Driver suggests that these custodians use performances of ritual and caring acts for Jewish graves for multiple reasons. Imazighen [Berbers] stress their close ties with Jews in order to create a moral self intentionally set apart from the mono-ethically Arab and mono-religiously Muslim Morocco. Other subjects, and particularly women, use their ties with Jewish sites to harness power and prestige in their communities. Others still may care for these grave sites to express grief for a close Jewish friend or adoptive family. In examining these motives, Driver not only documents the flow of material and spiritual capital across religious lines, but also moves beyond Muslim memory of the past on the one hand and Jewish dread of the future on the other to think about the Muslim/Jewish present in Morocco.
