Nationalism and the Israeli state : bureaucratic logic in public events / Don Handelman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Handelman, Don.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish nationalism.

Jews--Israel--Identity.

Jews.

Signs and symbols.

History.

Memory--Social aspects.

Memory.

Communication--Political aspects.

Group identity--Political aspects.

Group identity.

National characteristics, Israeli.

Psychological aspects.

Israel.

Identity (Philosophical concept).

National characteristics, Israeli--Psychological aspects.

Group identity--Political aspects--Israel.

Communication--Political aspects--Israel.

Communication.

Signs and symbols--Israel--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

xiii, 272 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Berg, 2004.

Summary:

National festivals. Military parades. Patriotic memorials. Such public events and tributes naturally bring to mind the idea of 'nationalism.' But what is the cultural logic behind them? How does a country such as Israel facilitate state-related public events as enactments of nationalism? To answer these questions, renowned anthropologist Don Handelman unpacks the meaning of national ritual and symbol in Israel today. He argues that public events mirror social order, a mirror that reflects to its participants and audiences the message that the designers of such events wish to communicate. Handelman considers the meaning of Holocaust and military memorialism, and he investigates the role of holiday celebrations, especially how they affect young children first learning about their country. Analyzing state ceremonies such as Holocaust Remembrance Day for the war dead, and Independence Day, he notes the absence of minorities and examines the significance of these events in the promotion of a national identity.

Throughout, Handelman develops his theory of 'bureaucratic logic' as the driving force behind expressions of nationalism in the modern state. He argues that bureaucratic logic has a much wider cachet than simply functioning as a way of thinking only about bureaucratic institutions. The logic is crucial to how these institutions function, but more so, it is a dominant force in forming modern state social order. Bureaucratic logic is used incessantly to invent and to modify all kinds of systems of classification that often have profound consequences for individuals and for groups, and that are ritualized powerfully through a host of state-related public events.

Contents:

Part I Preamble: Designs and Depositions

1 The Collapse of Versailles and the Nation-in-Arms 3

Versailles Collapses, the State Ascends 7

The Versailles Public Event 7

The Nation-in-Arms, The Family-in-Arms 12

The Event of Presentation 16

2 Bureaucratic Logic 19

The Monothetic Forming of Form 20

Tracing Bureaucratic Logic through Classification 22

Bureaucratic Logic in the Science of Police 28

Bureaucratic Logic and the State-Form 33

The Bureaucratization of Politics in Jewish Palestine 38

3 Making Jews National in their Citizenship 43

Citizenship 44

Shaping Nationality 45

Who is a Jew? 46

Majority and Minority 48

Jewish Ethnicities, Jewish Majority, Palestinian Minority 49

Part II The National and Bureaucratic Logic in Early Schooling

4 Celebrations of the National: Holiday Occasions in Kindergartens 61

Hanukkah: Hierarchy, Family, Collectivity 64

Mother's Day: The Creation of Family and Intimacy 68

Jerusalem Day: Statehood and the National 71

Celebrating the National 74

5 Celebrations of Bureaucratic Logic: Birthday Parties in Israeli Kindergartens 77

A Kindergarten Birthday Celebration 78

Individuation 81

Reclassification by Age 83

Temporal Continuity 85

Age and Bureaucratic Logic 87

Part III The Fruition of the National and Bureaucratic Logic

Zionist Cosmologic: The Dating of Days, The Shaping of Space 94

6 Opening Holocaust Remembrance Day: The Bureaucratic Logic and Aesthetics of National Mourning 101

The Aesthetic Feel of Practice 101

Bureaucratic Aesthetics in the Event of Presentation 103

The Military Envelopment of the Memorial Gathering 104

The Memorial Gathering 107

A Memorial Gathering of the 1990s: Sequencing 113

Performing Practices of Bureaucratic Logic 116

7 Sequencing the National: Opening Remembrance Day and Independence Day 119

Opening Remembrance Day, Enclosing the National 119

Opening Independence Day, Opening the National (Somewhat) 126

National Cosmology and the Encoding of Rhythmic Time 134

Part IV The Holes of Absence

8 The Presence of Absence: The Memorialism of National Absence 147

The Military Cemetery 150

The Memorial Place 153

The Holocaust Memorial 158

The Presence of Absence: Counter Cases 165

Memory, Metonymy, and Metaphor in National Memorialism 167

9 Absence Rising: Telling Little Holocaust Stories, Shaping the National 171

Absenting Presence 176

Telling Stories 182

Doing the Presence of Absence 184

Stories and Audiences 190

From Rising Absence to Redemptive Presence (and its Consequences) 194

Epilogue: The Cyborg State 201.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-263) and index.

ISBN:

1859737803

1859737854

OCLC:

54425067