Something Old, Something New: The Domestic Side of Moroccan-Israeli Ethnicity

The research on which this dissertation is based was carried out in Ramot Rakefet (fictitious name), a town in northern Israel. The primary theoretical focus of this work is ethnicity. The object of the study was to examine the ways in which Moroccan-Israeli women resident in Ramot Rakefet can be said to be ethnic and maintain ethnic values. Ethnicity is defined as those ties based on real or putative assumptions of a common historical and cultural past. Ethnic values derive in various ways from these assumptions and ties.The areas of activity examined in this work concern social life, family interactions, home life, child rearing, and family planning. Each area was chosen because it represents a social arena in which women were prominent actors.Research was carried out by participant observation as well as structured and unstructured interviews. In effect I tried to answer a number of questions about the lives of these women: With whom do they interact and spend most of their time? In what ways do they act as ethnics and how do they manipulate their ethnicity? What are the ethnic constraints on their present-day decision making? How do they influence their children and families? What do they value?I found that, although in many areas of life these women had adopted the values and behavior patterns of the larger, "national" society, in others they showed remarkable cultural persistence. Most significantly however there were also many situations in which the Moroccan-Israelis were able to innovate responses which accommodated both prior cultural constraints and the immediate social and cultural milieu in which they found themselves.This work adds to our theoretical knowledge by focussing on a number of topics such as ethnicity in an Israeli urban area, women as ethnics, and the role of ethnicity in family planning decision making.Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1983.School code: 0262