Rothenberg is a skilled analyst of jinn stories. . . . Rothenberg presents a picture of the jinn as a valuable force in modern Artas. . . . Passionate, vengeful and impulsive . . . Spirits of Palestine is a valuable book . . . and its publication could not be more timely, as Israel continues to confiscate Palestinian land ... Read moreat an accelerating rate around Bethlehem, and the Separation Wall threatens to destroy the Artas Celia Rothenberg has recorded.
Times Literary Supplement
Spirits of Palestine is a highly original ethnography offering real insights into the complexities of contemporary Palestinian village and spiritual life and, moreover, is a fascinating account. The old anthropological division between emic and etic is at the heart of the discourse here, between local believe and an outsider's contextualization, but it is extremely sensitively handled. The book is not only of interest to anthropologists and sociologists, but also scholars and students of religion and health.
Palestine Exploration Quarterly
For the reader seeking to understand both the texture of Palestinian life and the possibilities for resisting oppressive structures of power, Rothenberg offers an original perspective.
Journal Of Palestinian Studies
In this richly textured and finely tuned ethnography of spirit possession in Artas, Rothenberg follows in the grand anthropological tradition of Hilma Granqvist. Rothenberg is one of the few observers of Palestinian society to forge beyond the visible domains of the exercise of power to inner spiritual worlds. Thus she expands the parameters of Palestinian studies while carrying forward the anthropological approach to power and the supernatural. Through an examination of the jinn (spirits), she connects the moral geography, family dynamics and relations, gendered identities, and diasporic quality of Palestinian village life with the world of spirits.
Julie Peteet, chair and associate professor of anthropology, University of Louisville Show Less