"Minority" as a self-definition discourse in Second Temple Judaism

With this essay, I intend to analyze some practices of self-definition well attested in several documents of Second Temple Judaism, wherein a concept less or more coincident with our definition of minority assumes a pivotal role (Dead Sea Scrolls and 1 Enoch). My principal focus is to underline how a practice of self-definition, in terms of an actual or of a perceived minority as regard a broader context (or a context culturally constructed as a macrocontext), proves the interactions between neighbouring groups that share actual and symbolic spaces.