Mediating Nations and Generations: The Yemenite Jewish Marital Henna Ceremony

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the consequences of a large-scale emigration to Israel by the Yemenite Jewish population in the late 1940s. The foci for this examination are the marriage patterns of this population across the three generations directly affected by the emigration. More specifically, the fate of the henna, a premarital ceremony revered by the Yemenite Jews, is examined as it has changed in form and function over time and space. An ethnographic study of the Yemenite Jewish henna ceremony, as it is currently practiced today, illuminates the consequences of this populations’ adaptation to contemporary Israel society. The author suggests that the henna ceremony is a valuable fluid cultural form that enables the Yemenite Jewish population to mediate between its history in Yemen and its migratory experience in Israel.