Dressing the Part
Ethics of Insider/Outsider Attire for the Ethnography of American-Jewish 'Niddah'
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.35667Keywords:
critical ethnography, family purity, feminist ethnography, Niddah, Taharat HaMishpachahAbstract
A researcher with conservative clothing style could potentially confuse the women with whom she conducts research on contemporary Niddah practices, inviting accusations of unethically misrepresenting oneself to both the liberal and Orthodox communities in the Greater Phoenix Valley of Arizona, USA where the research will be conducted. This article reflects three years of wrestling with this dilemma, which has enabled the author to articulate and refine her current stance regarding researcher attire and broader ethical issues concerning power and representation in ethnographic research, as informed by her studies in critical ethnography and feminist methodologies. Drawing on Dwight Conquergood’s and D. Soyini Madison’s articulations of critical ethnography, the quality of the author’s ethnographic engagement leading up to the interviews should decode one’s attire and clarify questions about the researcher’s position, bias, and integrity. This methodology expresses itself through ethnographic strategies and interpersonal interactions with members of the communities. Additionally, this methodology requires the author and the community members to be mutually candid concerning their questions about their own menstrual practices, sex life, marital histories, and religious perspectives. More than establishing trust in the author’s emotional honesty and integrity as an academic, such candour levels the interviewer–interviewee playing field, critical for research touching on marital dynamics and sex lives. This integrates critical ethnography and interactive interview processes in terms of collaborative knowledge construction. These critical ethnographic and feminist methodologies further demand that this same degree of candour in academic communications, trust and interpersonal integrity should determine the matrix that produces the research and the researcher’s relationship with the Greater Phoenix Jewish community.
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References
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Conquergood, Lorne Dwight 2013 Cultural Struggles: Performance, Ethnography, Praxis. Edited by E. Patrick Johnson. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.4845471
Cook, Leslie 1999 Body Language: Women’s Rituals of Purification in the Bible and Mishnah. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 40–59. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
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Hoskins, Janet 2002 The Menstrual Hut and the Witch’s Lair in Two Eastern Indonesian Societies. Ethnology. Special Issue: Blood Mysteries: Beyond Menstruation as Pollution 41(4): 317–33.
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Koren, Sharon Faye 1999 Mystical Rationales for the Laws of Niddah. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 101–121. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press.
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Madison, D. Soyini 2012 Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethics, and Performance, 2nd ed. Los Angeles and Washington DC: SAGE Publications.
Meacham, Tirzah 1999 An Abbreviated History of the Development of the Jewish Menstrual Laws. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 23–39. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Noblit, George W., Susana Y. Flores, and Enrique G. Murillo Jr. (eds) 2004 Postcritical Ethnography: Reinscribing Critique. Understanding Education and Policy. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Perez, Danielle Storper, and Florence Heymann 1999 Rabbis, Physicians, and the Women’s/Female Body: The Appropriate Distance. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, 122–40. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Rubin, Janice, photographer; Leah Lax, text; and Charles Wiese, design 2001 The Mikvah Project. Houston, TX: Wall Printing.
Sered, Susan, Romi Kaplan, and Samuel Cooper 1999 Talking about Miqveh Parties, or Discourses of Gender, Hierarchy, and Social Control. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 145–65. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Slonim, Rivkah 1996 Total Immersion: A Mikvah Anthology. Edited by Liz Rosenberg. Jerusalem: Urim.
----- 2015 The Mystery and Magic of Mikvah. TorahCafe.com. Online: http://www.torahcafe.com/mrs-rivkah-slonim/the-mystery-and-magic-of-mikvah-video_3e6772f77.html (accessed September 21, 2015).
Tal, Ilana 2004 Exploring the Meaning of Becoming a Woman in a Non-Western Culture: A Narrative Analysis of First Menstruation Stories of Ethiopian Jewish Women. Dissertation Abstracts International 65(7): 3752–3971.
Tendler, Moshe D. 1988 Pardes Rimonim: A Manual for the Jewish Family. Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing House.
Thomas, Jim 1993 Doing Critical Ethnography. Qualitative Research Methods. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412983945
Wasserfall, Rahel 1999 Community, Fertility, and Sexuality: Identity Formation among Moroccan Jewish Immigrants. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 187–97. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. https://doi.org/10.26812/9780874519594
Weissman Joselit, Jenna 1990 New York’s Jewish Jews: The Orthodox Community in the Interwar Years. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
----- 1994 Kissing Business. In The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture 1880–1950, 9–54. New York: Hill and Wang.
Wenger, Beth S. 1998 Mitzvah and Medicine: Gender, Assimilation, and the Scientific Defense of “Family Purity”. Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, and Society 5(1): 177–202. https://doi.org/10.2979/JSS.1998.5.1-2.177
Allouche-Benayoun, Joëlle 1999 The Rites of Water for the Jewish Women of Algeria: Representations and Meaning. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 198–216. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Anteby, Lisa 1999 “There’s Blood in the House”: Negotiating Female Rituals of Purity among Ethiopian Jews in Israel. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 166–86. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Avishai, Orit 2008 “Doing Religion” in a Secular World: Women in Conservative Religions and the Question of Agency. Gender & Society 22(4): 409–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243208321019
Bell, Lawrence 2016 Conversation with Director of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society, November 28.
Cohen, Shaye J. D. 1991 Menstruants and the Sacred in Judaism and Christianity. In Women’s History and Ancient History, edited by Sarah B. Pomeroy, 273–99. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
----- 1992 Purity and Piety: The Separation of Menstruants from the Sancta. In Daughters of the King, edited by Susan Grossman and Rivka Haut, 103–15. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.
----- 1999 Purity, Piety, and Polemic: Medieval Rabbinic Denunciations of “Incorrect” Purification Practices. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 82–100. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Conquergood, Lorne Dwight 2013 Cultural Struggles: Performance, Ethnography, Praxis. Edited by E. Patrick Johnson. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.4845471
Cook, Leslie 1999 Body Language: Women’s Rituals of Purification in the Bible and Mishnah. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 40–59. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
“Dr. Naomi Marmon Grumet, Author at The Eden Center.” n.d. The Eden Center (blog). http://theedencenter.com/author/naomi-grumet/ (accessed February 6, 2018).
Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva 2000 Menstrual Purity: Rabbinic and Christian Reconstructions of Biblical Gender. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Ginsburg, Faye 1987 When the Subject is Women: Encounters with Syrian Jewish Women. Journal of American Folklore 100(398): 540–47. https://doi.org/10.2307/540911
Harris, Lis 1985 The Mikvah. In Holy Days: The World of the Hasidic Family, 135–49. New York: Touchstone.
Hartman, Tova 2007 Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation. HBI Series on Jewish Women. Waltham, MA; Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press; University Press of New England.
Hartman, Tova, and Naomi Marmon 2004 Lived Regulations, Systemic Attributions: Menstrual Separation and Ritual Immersion in the Experience of Orthodox Jewish Women. Gender and Society 18(3): 389–408. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243204264810
Hoffman, Joshua 1996 The Institution of the Mikvah in America. In Total Immersion: A Mikvah Anthology, edited by Rivkah Slonim and Liz Rosenberg, 76–92. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc.
Hoskins, Janet 2002 The Menstrual Hut and the Witch’s Lair in Two Eastern Indonesian Societies. Ethnology. Special Issue: Blood Mysteries: Beyond Menstruation as Pollution 41(4): 317–33.
Jacobs, Janet Liebman 1999 The Rites of Water for the Jewish Women of Algeria: Representations and Meaning. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 217–31. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance 2017 Dr Naomi Marmon Grumet’s Schedule for JOFA Conference 2017. Online: https://jofaconference2017.sched.com/speaker/dr.naomimarmongrumet (accessed April 24, 2017).
Johnson, E. Patrick 2013 Introduction: “Opening and Interpreting Lives.” In Cultural Struggles: Performance, Ethnography, Praxis, edited by Lorne Dwight Conquergood, 1–14. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Johnston, Isobel-Marie 2016 The History of Niddah in America as Social Drama: The Genealogy of a Ritual Practice. Thesis, Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University.
Koren, Sharon Faye 1999 Mystical Rationales for the Laws of Niddah. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 101–121. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press.
----- 2011 Forsaken: The Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press. https://doi.org/10.26812/9781611680225
Lamm, Maurice 1991 The Jewish Way in Love and Marriage. New York: Jonathan David Publishers, Inc.
Lamm, Norman 1966 A Hedge of Roses: Jewish Insights into Marriage and Married Life. New York: Feldheim Publishers.
Lykes, M. Brinton, and Alison Crosby 2014 Feminist Practice of Action and Community Research. In Feminist Research Practice, 2nd ed., edited by Sharlene Hesse-Biber and Patricia Leavy, 145–81. Los Angeles and Washington DC: SAGE Publications.
Madison, D. Soyini 2012 Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethics, and Performance, 2nd ed. Los Angeles and Washington DC: SAGE Publications.
Meacham, Tirzah 1999 An Abbreviated History of the Development of the Jewish Menstrual Laws. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 23–39. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Noblit, George W., Susana Y. Flores, and Enrique G. Murillo Jr. (eds) 2004 Postcritical Ethnography: Reinscribing Critique. Understanding Education and Policy. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Perez, Danielle Storper, and Florence Heymann 1999 Rabbis, Physicians, and the Women’s/Female Body: The Appropriate Distance. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, 122–40. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Rubin, Janice, photographer; Leah Lax, text; and Charles Wiese, design 2001 The Mikvah Project. Houston, TX: Wall Printing.
Sered, Susan, Romi Kaplan, and Samuel Cooper 1999 Talking about Miqveh Parties, or Discourses of Gender, Hierarchy, and Social Control. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 145–65. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Slonim, Rivkah 1996 Total Immersion: A Mikvah Anthology. Edited by Liz Rosenberg. Jerusalem: Urim.
----- 2015 The Mystery and Magic of Mikvah. TorahCafe.com. Online: http://www.torahcafe.com/mrs-rivkah-slonim/the-mystery-and-magic-of-mikvah-video_3e6772f77.html (accessed September 21, 2015).
Tal, Ilana 2004 Exploring the Meaning of Becoming a Woman in a Non-Western Culture: A Narrative Analysis of First Menstruation Stories of Ethiopian Jewish Women. Dissertation Abstracts International 65(7): 3752–3971.
Tendler, Moshe D. 1988 Pardes Rimonim: A Manual for the Jewish Family. Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing House.
Thomas, Jim 1993 Doing Critical Ethnography. Qualitative Research Methods. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412983945
Wasserfall, Rahel 1999 Community, Fertility, and Sexuality: Identity Formation among Moroccan Jewish Immigrants. In Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law, edited by Rahel R. Wasserfall, 187–97. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. https://doi.org/10.26812/9780874519594
Weissman Joselit, Jenna 1990 New York’s Jewish Jews: The Orthodox Community in the Interwar Years. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
----- 1994 Kissing Business. In The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture 1880–1950, 9–54. New York: Hill and Wang.
Wenger, Beth S. 1998 Mitzvah and Medicine: Gender, Assimilation, and the Scientific Defense of “Family Purity”. Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, and Society 5(1): 177–202. https://doi.org/10.2979/JSS.1998.5.1-2.177
Published
2018-03-13
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Johnston, I.-M. (2018). Dressing the Part: Ethics of Insider/Outsider Attire for the Ethnography of American-Jewish ’Niddah’. Fieldwork in Religion, 12(2), 179-203. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.35667
