Marranos on the Moradas : secret Jews and Penitentes in the southwestern United States, from 1590 to 1890 /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Simms, Norman Toby.
Imprint:Boston : Academic Studies Press, 2009.
Description:vii, 509 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Language:English
Series:Judaism and Jewish life
Subject:
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/7643672
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9781934843321
1934843326
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (p. 475-500) and index.
Description
Summary:Two groups were persecuted over the course of four hundred years in what is now the southwestern United States, each dissimulating and disguising who they truly were. Both now declare their true identities, yet raise hostility. The Penitentes are a lay Catholic brotherhood that practices bloody rites of self-flagellation and crucifixion, but claim this is a misrepresentation and that they are a community and a charitable organization. Marranos, an ambiguous and complicated population of Sephardic descendants, claim to be anousim. Both peoples have a complex, shared history. This book disentangles the web, redefines the terms, and creates new contexts in which these groups are viewed with respect and sympathy without idealizing or slandering them. Simms uses rabbinics, literary analyses, psychohistory, and cultural anthropology to consolidate a history of mentalities.
Physical Description:vii, 509 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (p. 475-500) and index.
ISBN:9781934843321
1934843326