Tuesday, September 19, 2017
7:30 PM - 10:00 PM (ET)
Palamountain Hall Davis Auditorium
Event Type
Lecture
Contact
Department
Special Programs
Link
http://ems.skidmore.edu/MasterCalendar/EventDetails.aspx?EventDetailId=17373
"Magic Plants in the
Holy Land"
A lecture by Aref Abu-Rabia, 2017
Greenberg Middle East Scholar-in-Residence
The worship of
trees – tying pieces of cloth and hanging amulets on them – has magic power to
produce fertility and bring blessing. This custom is common in the Holy Land
and North Africa. Sacred trees are sometimes seen to be the abode of supreme
beings and have a ritual significance, and are incorporated into rituals of
curing, initiation, marriage, and death.
Aref Abu-Rabia
is an anthropologist and former chair of the Department of Middle East Studies
at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His research and publications focus on
the Middle East, North Africa and Islamic communities in the West.
Abu-Rabia’s
research centers on topics in anthropology, Middle East Studies and public
health. He has published works on traditional medicine, family customs, holy
saints, education, violence and abuse of children, cosmopolitanism, Sufism,
Islamic medical law, and ethics. His current research is on complementary and
alternative medicine in the Middle East. His most recent publication is Indigenous Medicine among the Bedouin in the
Middle East, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.
He has received
several awards and honors, including the Berelson Prize for Jewish-Arab
Understanding and Co-Existence in Israel, and Fulbright Scholar for the Muslim
World (USA). He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Tel Aviv University.
This lecture is free and open to the public.