Perspectives on Israeli Anthropology (review)

Israelis are fond of saying that their country may be quite small, but it has everything in it! There are different landscapes and climates, industry ranging from agriculture to hi-tech, people representing a range of ethnic, racial, religious, and national groups; numerous languages are spoken, and, of course, there are always lively debates on all manner of questions, problems, and the most intense political conflicts. To put together an anthology containing all the complexity that makes up the people and places of the state of Israel, of Israel and the Occupied Territories, or of all the people, places, and issues studied by Israeli anthropologists, would seem an impossible project. This anthology is the first of its kind and while it is necessarily imperfect and incomplete, it is also a remarkable accomplishment.

As the first and only such compilation in English, Perspectives on Israeli Anthropology is a triumph of organization and editing. The book contains 30 chapters, 23 of which are previously published articles. Intended as a teaching anthology, it will be useful for programs in Israel Studies, as well as for more general anthropology courses. Taken in its entirety, the book raises a very important question: what is Israeli Anthropology? Considering the articles included, the organization of material, who and what is included, and who and what is left out, one might wonder if the book was intended primarily as an overview of the work of Israeli scholars, anthropologists writing about the peoples and cultures in Israel, an anthropology of the state of Israel, or about Israelis and Palestinians. The answer seems to be all of the above. As the editors write, the book reflects "issues that are important in understanding Israeli society and to which anthropologists have made...important contributions" (14). This broad range of areas is reflected in the five sections into which the book is divided: A Country of Immigrants; Pervasive Bureaucracy; Negotiating Society; Accommodating Palestinians; and Israeli Jewishness. These subheadings, however, are not entirely innocent. The editors have chosen to characterize "Israeli society" as a country of immigrants rather than a settler or settler-colonial society without reflecting on the debates over the central structuring feature of Israel/Palestine. While this descriptive choice is not surprising, it is unfortunate that the editors decided to say nothing about the controversies over representing this contested place, leaving out the kind of disciplinary reflection that is very vibrant in the Israeli academy.

The articles in this volume include the work of an impressive list of influential scholars, foundational pieces on Israeli society, and articles that speak to issues beyond the Israeli context. I will focus briefly here on some of the pieces that intersect with my areas of interest, especially some of the older pieces that retain their strength and importance. For example, the chapter on birthday parties in Israeli kindergartens and state bureaucracy by Lea Shamgar-Handelman and Don Handelman is a magnificent piece of ethnographic analysis. Their discussion of how children are enculturated into a particular Western sense of time which is directly related to relationships between individuals and a bureaucratic ethos in statist orders will be of continued relevance for anthropologists of education and of the state. Unfortunately, their earlier article on celebrating holidays in Israeli kindergartens, which is a must-read for anthropologists of education, nationalism, and the state, is not included here. The work of Shulamit Carmi and Henry Rosenfeld is important for its theoretical approach, providing a foundation for understanding the political economy of conflict in Israel. Carmi and Rosenfeld look back on 40 years of research and on the history of the state, illustrating the intersections of ethno-nationalism and socioeconomic class differences. Henry Abramovitch's article is a Jewish ethnography analyzing funerals and burial practices. It offers a detailed account of religious-secular "mismeetings" and discomforts that provides important insight into contemporary Jewish Israeli society.

Moving beyond the geographical confines of Israel are articles by Moshe Shokeid on Israeli immigrants to New...