Going to the People Jews and the Ethnographic Impulse [Hardcover]

Taking S. An-skys expeditions to the Pale of Jewish Settlement as its point of departure, the volume explores the dynamic and many-sided nature of ethnographic knowledge and the long and complex history of the production and consumption of Jewish folk traditions. These essays by historians, anthropologists, musicologists, and folklorists showcase some of the finest research in the field. They reveal how the collection, analysis, and preservation of ethnography intersect with questions about the construction and delineation of community, the preservation of Jewishness, the meaning of belief, the significance of retrieving cultural heritage, the politics of accessing and memorializing lost cultures, and the problem of narration, among other topics.

Overall,Going to the Peopleproves itself a useful addition to scholarship on Jewish folklore and ethnography by introducing major issues in these fi elds, as well as the historical figures and contemporary scholars who have shaped (and continue to shape) their development.

I read through this collection with pleasure and fascination. Ethnography is newly of interest to many scholars of Jewish studies, and I am confident that this volume will find an appreciative audience. Indeed the variety here powerfully conveys how many people are interested in ethnography both as a method and as the subject of their analysis. These are valuable voices that should be heard.

Acknowledgments
Introduction \ Jeffrey Veidlinger
Part I. History of the Ethnographic Impulse
1. Thrice Born, or Between Two Worlds: Reflexivity and Performance in An-sky's Jewish Ethnographic Expedition and Beyond \ Nathaniel Deutsch
2. Between Scientific and Political: Jewish Scholars and Russian-Jewish Physical Anthropology in the Fin-de-Si?cle Russian Empire\ Marina Mogilner
3. To Study Our Past, Make Sense of Our Present and Develop Our National Consciousness: Lev Shternbergs Comprehensive Program for Jewish Ethnography inl³°