The articles by Salim Tamari were a nice change of pace after reading Karen's book, but I still struggled to understand the articles and their meaning. The one article that I think I understood the most was "Lepers, Lunatics, and Saints." This article gave a Palestinian history, and how people were trying to preserve their culture.
It seems that Canaan and his colleagues were doing their best to try to preserve the Palestinian 'peasant' culture. Tamari talks about how they went into the neighborhoods and performed vast amounts of ethnogric research. What I don't understand, however, is why there is such a focus on the 'peasants.' I wonder if this means Palestinians as a group, or a specific class of Palestinians. I also found it interesting that Palestinians were struggling to keep and preserve their identity to begin with. It's enlightening to see what groups of people will do to make sure that their traditions are not completely erradicated.
Overall, these readings were enlightening when it comes to the Palestinian culture. I think that hearing Tamari's thoughts tomorrow in class will also help me better understand these readings and what they mean in the context of the current conflict.
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