The Bounded Female Voice in Memorial Ceremonies

摘要

Using the Israeli case the aim of this paper is to problematize the male dominance of the memorial ceremony for fallen soldiers and to ask whether it is challenged by female voices. Analysis of 50 accounts of ceremonies (elicited from semi-structured observations) as performed in Israeli schools during the last decade reveals that the female voice is heard loudly and introduces a model of mourning ritual that competes with the heroic canonic memory. Yet this voice is not a subversive one, but rather follows the traditional role assigned for women by the male order and redefines the nation state. A new form of nationalism emerges that shifts its center of gravity from a warrior ethos to an ethos of suffering.