ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book seeks to understand an enigma that has baffled historians and critics of culture for many years—that is, the curious sense of belonging of contemporary peoples to a land that long ago rejected them. It provides a solution that has as much to do with symbols of contemporary identity as with the artifacts of a distant past. Far removed from the conditions that initially gave rise to them in the Middle Ages, memories of medieval Spain—in literary texts, business practices, architecture, music, and so on—respond to contemporary needs for prescriptive ideologies, for symbols, and even for propaganda. Andalusians in Morocco possess an identity based on family roots in Spain, as well as on the special set of experiences the group has had as a result of exile from the land of its ancestors.
