Unorthodox Kin: Portuguese Marranos and the Global Search for Belonging by Naomi Leite (review)

Unorthodox Kin: Portuguese Marranos and the Global Search for Belonging is certainly a relevant contribution to the field of Jewish Studies, particularly in the contemporary Portuguese context. In the book, Naomi Leite explores the ways that the Marranos¹ in the northern Portuguese city of Oporto imagine themselves in relation to others—namely in regard to their surrounding society and the mainstream Jewish communities—and their search for a sense of belonging in a globalized world. The impact of the Marranos' encounters with travelers, especially those coming to Portugal interested in, attracted by, or with affinity to local Jewish culture, are also considered a relevant part of this contemporary globalism. Therefore, as an expert on the anthropological study of tourism, Leite offers the reader an engaging and insightful analysis into the possible relations between affinity, identity, exclusion, kinship, and tourism, grounded in intensive ethnographic fieldwork. In her own words:

This is a book about the desire for belonging, about identifying with a particular social category and having that claim to affiliation denied. It is about the ways that cultural logics of kinship inform imaginings of self in relation to others, individually and collectively, both back in time and across vast distances, and the ways those same logics work in practice to render some people strangers and others, kin.

(5)

Integrating the past and the present local and global dimensions into the Marranos' identity construction process makes this research a complete and innovative approach.

In Chapter 1, Leite describes the history of a Marrano community along with some notes on Judaism in the wider Portuguese context. Here, she provides the reader with an historical overview detailing the main facts of the Inquisition and forced conversions, up to the time when the Marranos were "discovered" by a Polish mine engineer who came to work in Portugal in the 1920s. This inherited past is, according to Leite, not only the original source of the Marranos' existence, but also the resource they use to connect in time and space, as well as to construct their present identity. By analyzing how the meanings of Jewishness evolved and changed over time, and by depicting the Portuguese historical context—also including foreigners' past perspectives as recorded by historians and as remembered by various contemporary stakeholders (40)—the author offers the necessary background to understand the Marranos' identity formation in the present.

Then, in Chapter 2, Leite describes the process of becoming a self-identified Marrano as an individual social discovery—i.e., the acquisition of a new social identity through the perception of one's sense of self as a Jew. This discovery of essential or chosen Jewishness is achieved through kinship, through an affinity with Judaism, and/or through the detection of Jewish genes or soul. With this connection to Judaism, the Marranos are able to incorporate their newfound Jewish identity into their daily lives. However, because of the precarious position of Marranos, assuming this identity risks possible exclusion from the mainstream Jewish realm and opposition by certain groups in their own social milieu. As Leite states:

Though understood to be both innate and hereditary, this true self requires recognition, attention, and cultivation if it is to be fully realized as a personal and social identity. There is always a "coming out" process, first to oneself and then to others…Faced with the obligatory task of self-determination, these modern subjects elected to see themselves as already-determined.

(105–106)

Leite found out that one of the ways the Marranos construct their Jewishness is by "genealogical causality." Her neologism refers to the fact that "by virtue of descent, the individual shares psychological, emotional, and behavioral characteristics with the person's forebears, and, consequently, one may infer ancestry from such characteristics" (111–112). So, in this process, many Marranos felt they did not become Jews, but instead returned to Judaism—they already perceived themselves as Jews, not only by descent but also by choice...