Book contents
- Nuer Messianic Judaism
- The International African Library
- Nuer Messianic Judaism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Note on Language
- Glossary
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1On Encounters
- 2Urban Edges
- 3Church Genealogies
- 4Words of God
- 5Aesthetic Provocations
- 6Biblical Bloodlines
- 7Tradition Reinvented
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
- Series page
1 - On Encounters
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 April 2026
Book contents
- Nuer Messianic Judaism
- The International African Library
- Nuer Messianic Judaism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Note on Language
- Glossary
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1On Encounters
- 2Urban Edges
- 3Church Genealogies
- 4Words of God
- 5Aesthetic Provocations
- 6Biblical Bloodlines
- 7Tradition Reinvented
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
- Series page
Summary
This chapter situates the study within a broader historical, political, and scholarly context, and presents the methodology upon which it draws. First, the chapter sketches the history of Gambella as a site of encounter between the Ethiopian state and Nuer society and examines the historical and anthropological scholarships on Ethiopia’s peripheries and on the eastern frontier of Nuerland. It then discusses my own encounter with Gambella, the context and political environment in which research took place, the local religious landscape and the place of Messianic Jews in it, and the ‘data collection’ methods and research approach deployed. The final sections of the chapter explore my positionality in Gambella, as a Jewish Israeli researcher among Messianic Jews, and the sort of intersubjective encounters that informed this study.
Keywords
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- Information
- Nuer Messianic JudaismTruth and Mediation in the Ethiopia-South Sudan Borderlands, pp. 25 - 56Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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