Purge the Evil From Your Midst: Material Cancel Culture Among Religiously Observant Jews

Abstract

This article explores cancel culture as a material endeavor on the ground. We draw on ethnographic tools to call attention to formative material dimensions of canceling and employ the conceptual lens of material culture to analyze rationales and practices around the canceling of objects. The case study concerns how ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel manage allegations of sexual abuse against a beloved author by engaging in a myriad of material-canceling actions around his books. We cluster and investigate these actions under three categories: Time-Out, Taking Out, and Casting Out. We offer the term Material Cancel Culture as a productive intervention in a literature that generally focuses on the discursive and digital components of cancel culture. The multiplicity of possible material (dis)engagements allows us to move beyond a somewhat dichotomous outline of cancel versus not-cancel, and to consider how the material immediacy and properties of objects open up new scripts of action in response to public sentiments of rage and critique.