Music and the Re-creation of Identity in Imagined Iberian Jewish Communities

Abstract

In both Spain and Portugal, over the past several years, more and more historically Jewish sites have been identified, discovered and promoted, both academically and for tourism. In a few cases this has accompanied individual Identification with Judaism or, in one Portuguese town, a significant group. More often, it has led to newly-created festivals of imagined Jewish communities. This article uses approaches from the anthropology of tourism to examine issues such as authenticity, appropriation and identity markers. More specifically, it focuses on the function of Sephardic music in recently developed festivals of two Camino de Sefarad towns, Ribadavia (Galicia) and Hervás (Extremadura).