By the end of the sixteenth century, the economic situation and the Iberian Union (1580-1640) pushed hundreds of Portuguese conversos (New Christians of Jewish descent) to emigrate to Spain. This ...influx led to a revival of crypto-Judaism and a resurgence of inquisitorial proceedings against conversos. This essay examines the process of identity construction among those crypto-Jews or marranos, both as individuals and as a group. Crypto-Judaism was more related to a social practice than a theological corpus; it was based on a culture of mobility (geographical, socio-economic) that constantly reshaped the markers of difference. Crypto-Jews were mainly those who wanted to be, and were, perceived as such through opposition to an "Other"—sometimes the Jew of the Diaspora (the naçāo), sometimes the Catholic Old Christian, sometimes the image of themselves that they saw reflected back from those around them. But the fear of betrayal or unmasking, stimulated by the Inquisition and exacerbated by the great mobility of the conversos, was also foundational to their identity. It gave the marrano group, despite its great religious and socio-economic diversity, the characteristics of certain secret societies where shared solidarities and collective identity are fundamental.
Résumé
L’attachement au pays d’origine est bien analysé pour les diasporas contemporaines afin de démontrer leur dimension transnationale et décrire leurs rapports avec l’état-nation. Pour les XVI
e
...-XVIII
e
siècles, en revanche, cette question pourtant fondamentale est minorée au profit des liens entre communautés. Souhaitant sortir des perspectives mono-confessionnelles qui limitent l’historiographie des diasporas modernes, ce travail s’appuie sur l’étude de quatre groupes dispersés : les séfarades, les catholiques britanniques, les huguenots et les morisques. La terre d’origine, qui grave son empreinte culturelle sur la diaspora, constitue un liant structurant fondamental : lieu de l’événement-déclencheur de dispersion et du martyre, elle apparaît comme le front de la résistance qui légitime l’existence de « l’arrière », la diaspora. Territoire matriciel, souvent mythifié et mobilisé dans les visions messianiques, elle est indissociable de la notion de retour.
Abstract
The attachment to the country of origin is well analyzed for contemporary diasporas to demonstrate their transnational dimension and to describe their relationship with the nation-state. For the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, however, the historiography has emphasized the relationship between communities, overlooking this important issue. Putting aside mono-denominational perspectives, this article offers a new approach to early-modern diasporas by confronting four groups: the Sephardim, the British Catholics, the Huguenots and the Moriscos. The cultural imprint of the homeland was a core structure of diasporas. The locus of both martyrdom and the trigger-event of dispersion, the homeland appeared as the front line of resistance, legitimizing the existence of the “rear”, i.e. the Diaspora. Often mythologized and mobilized in messianic visions, this crucial territory was inseparable from the notion of return.
The attachment to the country of origin is well analyzed for contemporary diasporas to demonstrate their transnational dimension and to describe their relationship with the nation-state. For the ...sixteenth to the eighteenth century, however, the historiography has emphasized the relationship between communities, overlooking this important issue. Putting aside mono-denominational perspectives, this article offers a new approach to early-modern diasporas by confronting four groups: the Sephardim, the British Catholics, the Huguenots and the Moriscos. The cultural imprint of the homeland was a core structure of diasporas. The locus of both martyrdom and the trigger-event of dispersion, the homeland appeared as the front line of resistance, legitimizing the existence of the "rear", i.e. the Diaspora. Often mythologized and mobilized in messianic visions, this crucial territory was inseparable from the notion of return. Adapted from the source document.
L'attachement au pays d'origine est bien analysé pour les diasporas contemporaines afin de démontrer leur dimension transnationale et décrire leurs rapports avec l'État-nation. Pour les XVIe-XVIIIe ...siècles, en revanche, cette question pourtant fondamentale est minorée au profit des liens entre communautés. Souhaitant sortir des perspectives mono-confessionnelles qui limitent l'historiographie des diasporas modernes, ce travail s'appuie sur l'étude de quatre groupes dispersés : les séfarades, les catholiques britanniques, les huguenots et les morisques. La terre d'origine, qui grave son empreinte culturelle sur la diaspora, constitue un liant structurant fondamental : lieu de l'événement-déclencheur de dispersion et du martyre, elle apparaît comme le front de la résistance qui légitime l'existence de « l'arrière » , la diaspora. Territoire matriciel, souvent mythifié et mobilisé dans les visions messianiques, elle est indissociable de la notion de retour. The attachment to the country of origin is well analyzed for contemporary diasporas to demonstrate their transnational dimension and to describe their relationship with the nation-state. For the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, however, the historiography has emphasized the relationship between communities, overlooking this important issue. Putting aside mono-denominational perspectives, this article offers a new approach to early-modern diasporas by confronting four groups: the Sephardim, the British Catholics, the Huguenots and the Moriscos. The cultural imprint of the homeland was a core structure of diasporas. The locus of both martyrdom and the trigger-event of dispersion, the homeland appeared as the front line of resistance, legitimizing the existence of the "rear", i.e. the Diaspora. Often mythologized and mobilized in messianic visions, this crucial territory was inseparable from the notion of return.
The attachment to the country of origin is well analyzed for contemporary diasporas to demonstrate their transnational dimension and to describe their relationship with the nation-state. For the ...sixteenth to the eighteenth century, however, the historiography has emphasized the relationship between communities, overlooking this important issue. Putting aside mono-denominational perspectives, this article offers a new approach to early-modern diasporas by confronting four groups: the Sephardim, the British Catholics, the Huguenots and the Moriscos. The cultural imprint of the homeland was a core structure of diasporas. The locus of both martyrdom and the trigger-event of dispersion, the homeland appeared as the front line of resistance, legitimizing the existence of the "rear", i.e. the Diaspora. Often mythologized and mobilized in messianic visions, this crucial territory was inseparable from the notion of return. Adapted from the source document. Reprinted by permission of Éditions de l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales
