Muslim Custodians of Jewish Spaces in Morocco: Drinking the Milk of Trust

Description

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. Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures Chapter 1 Introduction: Teaching Me How to Pray Theoretical Grounding Identity Interdependence and “Drinking the Milk of Trust” What Is at Stake? References Chapter 2 Orientation: Arrival and Framing the Work of Ethnography Getting There Doing Ethnography as a Nus-Nus Immediate Failures Outside the Gate Lessons from an Unpleasant First Visit Authentic Acts of Care Delimiting the Ethnographic Task References Chapter 3 Moroccan Muslims Locating Moroccan Jews in Time and Space Pre-Islamic Morocco Arab Invasion and Islamic Morocco Legends of a North African Jewish Kingdom Exiles Saint Veneration Colonialism and Differentiation Exodus/Contraction Return References Chapter 4 Passover Professionals Matzah Expertise Passover with Hamou Passover with Toudert and Rebha The Seder as a Performative Act Passover—A Performative Case Study References Chapter 5 Guards—Building Muslim Authority in Jewish Cemeteries Places of Contradiction Sefrou Repertoire Essaouira Authentic “Experts” Timzerit The Heart of Performance: Recitation of Relationships Rabat References Chapter 6 Drinking the Milk of Trust: A Performance of Authenticity Defining “Self” Through the Other Farming and Integrity Trading and Formalizing Ties Prosperity and Trust Persecution Contacts and Boundaries A Strange Dinner—Weirdness as a Defining Personality Trait To Aghbalou!—Rural Power, Repertoire, and Ethnopoetics Arab Idol Interruption—Why Do You Care so Much? Drinking the Milk of Trust References Chapter 7 Blessings and the Business of Cemetery Tourism Attractive Narratives: Prying Tourists Out of Major Cities It’s All About the Guide: Shaping the Experience Why Start a Cemetery Tourism Company? Authenticity and Authority NGOs, Cemeteries, and Tourism The Blessings of Jewish Graves The Essaouira Project Rehabilitating the “House[s] of Life” References Chapter 8 Conclusion: Changing Flavor of the Milk of Trust Jewish Ties as a Mechanism to Create the Self and “Otherness” Performing Alternative Histories The Material of Jewish Sacred Spaces What’s Next? References Index