Paper short abstract:

Memory rather than practice is the salient feature of crypto-Jewish identity. It provides the battle ground upon which authenticity is both challenged and validated. Memory also provides the basis upon which individuals can move between identities in the act of creating models of selfhood.

Paper long abstract:

The study of crypto-Judaism in New Mexico has been highly contested, particularly because memory rather than practice provides the primary constituent element out of which individuals provide foundation for models of identity. As a culture of memory, the historical authenticity crypto-Judaism has been challenged by some scholars working within narrow folkloric and historical frameworks. The challenge creates a fascinating ethnographic field in which individuals seek alternative means to provide an essentialist basis for identity and therefore a more secure basis for authenticity.

The use of memory as the salient foundation also provides a fascinating field for examining cultural fluidity. This paper explores the relationship between memory, myth, and history. It suggests memory performs a similar role, creating the a basis for validating models of self. As such, like myth and history (albeit within a much narrower timeframe) memory is characterised by fluidity such that in dialectical relation with constructions of self it transforms (whether over the course of life or as the individual moves within different social and cultural contexts). The discussion highlights the fluidity of identity and the complex process by which identities are developed and transformed. It also demonstrates, in the context of crypto-Jewish practice, the ways in which practices are used and improvised on in relation to the fluidity of both identity and memory.

In a sense the paper suggests that crypto-Jewish identity is a prime example of 'post-modern' identity and further, that properly understood all identities are post modern is a similar sense.