Finding one's place: Locale narratives in an Israeli moshav

This paper attempts to show how people use narratives in the process of self definition based on locale. In 1949, Tunisian immigrants are sent to establish a new settlement in the Israeli Negev desert. Stories they share about their experiences in coping with the locale help them to establish a new identity, that of Israeli pioneers. The locale and its markers become chronotopes and help define the place and its settlers as distinct from the neighboring places/people.

Key words:

• narrative
• Israel
• locale
• Jewish‐Arab relations
• ethonography