Dreams, djinn, and the evil eye: Interpreting the supernatural idiom of Yemenite Jewish immigration

Abstract

AbstractThe lived experiences of immigration and transitional identity increasingly emerge as social challenges that urgently require greater understanding. With the mass emigration of Yemenite Jews out of Yemen to Israel undertaken 70 years ago, we now have an opportunity to assess the long‐term effects of this social phenomenon. A focus on the idiosyncratic supernatural productions of a representative sample of this population enable an innovative analysis through the application of tools from anthropology, psychology, and psychoanalysis. The proposed methods are a necessary supplement, and corrective, to those research projects that are solely dependent on the conscious, cognitively oriented participation of informants.