Territorial attachment, mobility and identity negotiations, the case of the Samaritans of Holon (Israel) and Kiryat Lûza (Palestine) ; Au croisement des regards. Ancrage territorial, mobilités et négociations identitaires, Le cas des Samaritains de Holon (Israël) et de Kiryat Lûza (Palestine)

This thesis explores the relation between dual citizenship, religious affiliation and particularist claims observed in the formation process of the Samaritan community. Close to Judaism through religion but from which they stand out, citizens of either Palestine and Israel – where they live as an ethno-confessional minority – from whom they differentiate themselves, the Samaritans adjust their identity according to their environment, the theatre of a decades long conflict. The study of territorial, administrative and political reconfigurations since the late 19th century and how they led to multifaceted movements (geographical, social, identity) among Samaritans, sheds light on how they affect social and symbolic borders. Deliberately alternating between historical material (travellers' texts, scientific exploration reports, archives, censuses) and the data collected during the ethnographic survey, this research puts into perspective the production of an "orientalist myth" and its role in the various phases of readjustment – opening and closing – of the community's borders. It will analyse how the construction of Samaritan particularism played a key part in the process of granting social (economic, prestige) and administrative (citizenship) status, and helps to establish social and symbolic boundaries. At a crossroads between anthropological and epistemological approaches, my ambition is to go further into the forms of "scholarly authentication" (Ciarcia, 2003) of Samaritan traditions from an external perspective as well as their indigenous re-appropriation, intertwined with social and political issues. Thus, literary and scientific writings (in the field of physical anthropology, genetics, history and philology) from the 19th to the mid-20th century are put to use in a context of tourism and heritage according to categories of participants. The analysis of the speeches delivered by Samaritan representatives in a tourism context makes it possible to understand the local investment of these images – and their ...