Nelia HYNDMAN-Rizk, My Mother’s Table

This anthropological study of Maronite Christian emigrants from the village of Hadchit in North Lebanon is primarily concerned with the nuanced ways in which the migrants and their descendants in Australia understand "home."Hyndman-Rizk argues that through women's practices of care, acutely symbolized when gathered around the mother's table, emigrants establish a sense of homeliness that was previously fixated on a specific place: the land and infrastructure of Hadchit.This is a familiar process from many studies of migration.In order to understand how the migrants have established this new homeliness the author investigated: (i) how these people understand their (or their ancestors') decisions to migrate with the aim of achieving najāḥ (success) by acquiring material wealth; (ii) the religious ramifications of such decisions, i.e. becoming "spiritually poor" by focusing on wealth; (iii) discourse about Hadchit as both a "holy land" and as a site of return; (iv) identity politics in Australia and the US and how Hadchitis operate within these broader multicultural settings

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