Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Gideon Aran – Tinker, tailor, terrorist, freedom fighter

After a welcome hiatus, the subject of terrorism is back in the headlines. The kidnapping and murder of three yeshiva students in the territories, and afterward the burning alive of a Palestinian youth from East Jerusalem, generated pain, frustration, anger and protest on both sides.


to read more click - Professor Gideon Aran - haaretz

Gideon Aran is a professor of Sociology & Anthropology at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He studies both religion and extremism, and particularly their intersection, in Israel, in past and present Judaism, and in comparative perspective. Aran's research is based mainly on ethnographic fieldwork. In recent years his writing and teaching focus on fundamentalism, sects, cults and radical groups, religious violence, terrorism. Aran's forthcoming book concerns suicide bombing, especially in the Middle East. 
contact:
Professor Gideon Aran
Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology
Hebrew University
Jerusalem
Israel 91905
Email: gideon.aran@mail.huji.ac.il
Phone: 972-2-5883331 (Office)
           972-2-5345801 (Home)
Fax :   972-2-5324339 (Office)

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Gideon Aran – Sitting Posture, Native Israeliness and Ultra-Orthodoxy

I am referring to a low seated position – not on a chair – which has several versions, such 
as crouching down on your heels, with bent limbs drawn up closely beneath the body, or a kind of relaxed semi-lotus position, resting entirely on your backside with legs crossed in front. In all its versions, this is a posture in which the body’s center of gravity is close to the ground, or even in contact with it.The sitting posture described here commonly expresses an unmediated relationship between a person and his body and his place.


to read more click - Professor Gideon Aran

Gideon Aran is a professor of Sociology & Anthropology at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He studies both religion and extremism, and particularly their intersection, in Israel, in past and present Judaism, and in comparative perspective. Aran's research is based mainly on ethnographic fieldwork. In recent years his writing and teaching focus on fundamentalism, sects, cults and radical groups, religious violence, terrorism. Aran's forthcoming book concerns suicide bombing, especially in the Middle East. 
contact:
Professor Gideon Aran
Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology
Hebrew University
Jerusalem
Israel 91905
Email: gideon.aran@mail.huji.ac.il
Phone: 972-2-5883331 (Office)
           972-2-5345801 (Home)
Fax :   972-2-5324339 (Office)