Unorthodox Kin: Portuguese Marranos and the Global Search for Belonging

by Naomi Leite

Unorthodox Kin is a groundbreaking exploration of identity, relatedness, and belonging in the context of profound global interconnection. Naomi Leite paints a poignant and graceful portrait of Portugal's urban Marranos, who trace their ancestry to fifteenth-century Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism and now seek connection with the Jewish people at large. Their story raises questions fundamental to the human condition: how people come to identify with far-flung others; how some find glimmerings of mystical connection in a world said to be disenchanted; how identities are lived in practice and challenged in interaction; how the horizons of kinship expand in a globally interconnected era; and how feelings of relatedness emerge between strangers and gather strength over time. Focusing on mutual imaginings and face-to-face encounters between urban Marranos and the foreign Jewish tourists and outreach workers who travel to meet them, Leite draws on a decade of ethnographic research in Portugal to trace participants' perceptions of self, peoplehood, and belonging as they evolve through local and global social spaces. Methodologically innovative and written in a compelling narrative style, Unorthodox Kin is a model study in the anthropology of kinship, tourism, and globalization that will appeal to a wide readership.

Genres: Anthropology

342 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 2017

Reviews

[Owlseyes]

(Oporto synagogue)

(Jewish Community of Oporto)

Unorthodox Kin: Portuguese Marranos and the Global Search for Belonging
Naomi Leite
in: https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/boo...

[annabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was such a great book on analyzing the development of identity, especially with the outsider category of Marranos. it was so good that i’m willing to buy the hardcover copy to read it again in a physical form.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book after listening to a lecture by the author. Leite looks at people in Portugal who concluded that not only were they descended from Jews but they themselves were and always have been Jews. This is an anthropological study on belonging, group identity and group formation. Readers will find a most fascinating journey here. I found the book difficult to put down.

[Mills College Library]

305.8924 L5334 2017