Middle East: An Anthropological Approach (Prentice-Hall series in anthropology) PDF
Preview Middle East: An Anthropological Approach (Prentice-Hall series in anthropology)
Dro DePt. or Bibk and Ancient Near Easternsu-,viies ilv Ben-Gurian Ul1.l\rel·s : LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Eickelman, DaleF(date) , TheMiddleEast. Includes bibliographicalreferencesandindex. 1. Ethnology-NearEast. 2. Ethnology-Africa, North. 3. NearEast-Sociallifeand customs. 4. Africa, Ndrth-Sociallifeand customs. 1. Title. GN635.N42E38 956 80·19547 ISBN 0·13·581629·7 Editorial/productionsupervisionandinterior designby LindaSchuman CoverdesignbyEdsalEnterprises Manufacturingbuyer: EdmundW.Leone r: \..:7 (Q35 Ii\.~',' ~) Prentice-Hall SeriesinAnthropology DavidM.Schneider,Editor ©1981 byPrentice-Hall,Inc., EnglewoodCliffs,N.J. 07632 Allrightsreserved.No partofthisbook may bereproducedinanyform or byanymeanswithoutpermissioninwriting from thepublisher. Printedinthe United States ofAmerica Ill!IIiilII -=a ~'i-':1 n'O'lUi::.l'dl!l!l'i'! 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 I' 'NO I"IID 339 31 PRENTICE-HALLINTERNATIONAL,INC.,London PRENTICE-HALLOF AUSTRALIA PTY.LIMITED,Sydney PRENTICE-HALL,OFCANADA,LTD.,Toronto' PRENTICE-HALL'OFINDIAPRIVATELIMITED,NewDelhi PRENTICE-HALLOFJAPAN,INC.,Tokyo PRENTICE-HALLOFSOUTHEASTASIAPTE.LTD.,Singapore WHITEHALLBOOKSLIMITED,Wellington,New Zealand contents Preface lx Noteon Transliteration xiii Part 1 !ntroductlon 1 Anthropologyand the MiddleEast TheMiddleEastDefined 1 Anthropology:SomePracticalAssumptions 6 FirstApproximations 13 2 Intellectual Predecessors: The Rediscoveryofthe MiddleEast 23 Bonaparte'sExpedition toEgypt, 1798-1801 25 ExplorersandScholars 27 WilliqmRobertson Smith (1846-1894) 33 ScholarlyInquiryandImperialInterests 38 v vi CONTENTS CONTENTS vii 3 8 The FunctionalistEra: The Cultural Orderof ComplexSocieties 175 Villageand CommunityStudies 45 World View 175 FunctionalismasTheoryandPractice 45 Morocco: God'sWill,Reason, FunctionalismintheStudy oftheMiddleEast 48 andObligation 178 q NorthAfricansinIsrael 183 TheMarketasaCulturalForm 186 The Contextsof Pastoral Nomadism 63 Lying 190 Etiquette 192 PastoralNomadism:ThePastandthePresent 65 Iran:Tacaruf 196 SaudiArabianPastoralists: TheAlMurra 72 Conclusion 199 TheIdeologyofEquality: FurtherConsiderations 81 PartIII PartII Islamand ReligiollsExperience Meaningand Society 5 9 What isaTribe? 85 Islamin Practice 201 Ideologies 85 IslamasaWorldReligion 201 '¥t-The ConceptofTribe 87 TheFivePillars 204 Iv!.AMoroccanExample:TheBn!Batdw 90 TheShfca 213 SegmentationIdeologyorSegmentaryTheory: AnIdeologicalFrontier?: TheAlevi 219 TheBedouinofCyrenaica 98 Sufism 222 Maraboutism: TownandTribe 228 6 ~ {jienofLearning(CUlama') Personal and Family Relationships 105 Reform: TheSelfRenewal \ ofIslamicTradition 246 IlvKinshipToday 105 Beginnings 252 1J'CulturalForms 108 VPracticalKinship:Morocco 110 PracticalKinship: PartIV SomeAnalyticalConsiderations 116 The Shapeof Change Marriage 124 TheImportanceofKinandFamily 128 10 7 Cities inTheir Place 261 Change in Practical Ideologies: Self, Sexuality,and Ethnicity 135 Issues 261 The"Islamic"City 266 ~oNaming 136 \;ColonialCitiesandTheirLegacy 273 Women, Men,andSexuality 141 CutesNow 277 Ethnicity andCulturalIdentity 157 CitiesandSocialClass 283 viii CONTENTS 11 PoliticalEconomy: Pastand Present 289 MedievalMuslimStates: \t ProblemsofAuthorityandInterpretation 290 TheColonialExperience 297 TheSocialAnthropologyoftheNation-State 306 DevelopmentinPerspective 317 Conclusion 324 preface Glossary 326 Index 331 Thisbook isintended asan anthropological introductionto the MiddleEast. This goalisinseparablefromasecond,complementaryone,that ofindicatingthecontri bution which the study of the Middle East is making to the main currents of anthropology, especiallythose whichrelateto the analysisofcomplexsocieties.As anthropological scholarship on the major civilizational areas of the world has reached a criticalintensity,certainthemeshavebeenmoreemphasizedthan others. In research on BlackAfrica in the 1940s and early 1950s, the nature of political order to be found in "stateless"societieswasapredominantquestion.Muchofthe anthropological study of India has focused on the cultural and socialaspects of inequality, andthis literature hasprofoundlyinfluencedthe consideration ofstrati ficationandsocialclasselsewhere. Researchon the MiddleEastisbeginningto reach a similarcriticalintensity and severalinterrelated themes prevail.One group of problemsissuggestedbythe study of Islamand the meansby which aworldreligionisto beunderstoodsimul taneously asauniversalideologicalforce andin its richlocal manifestations. How doesaworldreligionsuchasIslammaintainitsvitalityinrapidlyevolvingeconomic and political contexts, andhow do localunderstandings of Islamaffect the wider currentsofIslamiccivilization? Another set of problems dealswith ideaswhichpeoplehold oftheir cultural identity. In a region as complex as the MiddleEast, with interlocking linguistic, ethnic, religious, kin, and class distinctions, the problems of how personal and collective identities are asserted and what they mean in differing historical and PREFACE xi x PREFACE political contexts are especiallycrucial. Such distinctions are much more plastic audience but writing them brought me directly in contact with the evasive than earlierstereotypes concerningtheir culturalbaseshaveallowed. "general': audience so often evoked but never clearly delineated by academics.I Athird emergingresearchfocusconcernseconomicactivities-theproduction wrote for the seriesasIwouldforgraduateandundergraduate students (inmyown and consumption of goods and services. At agenerallevel,sharedwith other dis experiencethe distinction between writingandteachingforthesetwo categoriesof ciplines, this focus involvesanalyzing the social and cultural impact of develop students is often exaggerated because the critical talents of un~ergraduat.e~.are ments such as massive labor emigration from poorer countries, the influx of oil often not fully appreciated) and for anyone interestedin the region and civiliza and mineral wealth to others, urbanization and land reform, and the shifting tions of the Middle East. From correspondence and conversations it gradually soft~ning edg~s circumstancesof international politics.A specificallyanthropological contribution emergedthat the decisionnot to seekto popularizeby the ofdiffi audienc~ m~erested to these issuesconcerns the analysisof the cultural valuesand systemsofsocial cultproblemswasenthusiasticallyreceivedby an w:d:rthanone relationships associated with forms ofeconomic activityrangingfrom the Middle simplyin the-MiddleEast or in how anthropologyasadisciplinec~con~nbuteto Eastern bazaar to "modern"formsofindustrialandcommercialactivitiesandwhat thestudy ofcomplexsocieties.Ihavetried to usethesameapproachill~sbook. happens to valuesand socialrelationships in the context of rapid economicand In writing this essay, I have benefited substantially .from the critical :om socialchange. ments and adviceof a number ofcolleaguesand friends. Hildred GeertzofPrince A fourth researchfocus concernschanginginterpretations ofMiddleEastern ton Universityreadtheentiremanuscriptwithacriticalintensitywhichenabled~e societies and cultures by Westerners and by MiddleEasterners themselves.This to strengthen and clarify keypoints ofthe essay,especially.thesectionsconcernmg problem, once regardedasanhistoriographic onerelated only indirectly to "real" kinship and cultural identity.PaulJ.Sanfaconofthe AmencanMuseumofNatural anthropological inquiry, isnow regardedasimplicitin any problem in the human History also commented with insight upon the manuscript and coordinated key sciences. Ideasconcerningwhat constitutesvaliddescription andinterpretationof editorial tasksat atimewhenmyabsencefromthe country mighthavedelayedthe any culture and society have changed dramatically over the last two centuries, appearance of the book. My colleagueKarenI. BIuat NewY~rk University pro especiallyassocialsciencehas ceasedto beprimarilyaWestern orEuropeanenter vided timely and detailed suggestionson most of the manuscnpt. Jon Anderson, prise. Richard T. Antoun, T. O. Beidelrnan,Vincent Crapanzano, Bouzekri Draiouiy, Thisbook isintended both asatextbook and asaninterpretativeessay.Itis Christine Eickelman, Clifford Geertz, Abdellah Hammoudi, Nicholas S.Hopkins, a textbook insofar asit isintended asa self-containedbook to introduce students MichaelMarcus,Kenneth Sandbank, DavidM.Schneider,andDeloresWaltershave and colleaguesto thebasicethnographicthemesoftheMiddleEastandthetheoret also offered useful advice. Except where otherwise noted in the text, the maps ical questions that havebeen and arebeingdevelopedby specialistsin the region. have been prepared by Danny Cornyetz. Numerous colleagues have generously Although this book is in part necessarilya synthesisofmajor research,I seekto allowedme to usephotographs andother materials,andsuchassistanceisacknowl develop a particular style of anthropological inquiry and show its contribution edged at appropriate places in the text. Thisbook isdedicated to the late Abdul to the study of aregion of complex civilizationrather than provideanexhaustive Hamid M. el-Zein,a friend who in hisown work sought to make anthropology a reviewof the literature. Many textbooks are derivativeand unconvincingin that self-renewing form of philosophical and socialinquiry which could transcend the they rarely conveythe senseof discoverywhichleapsfrom the pagesof themore intellectualtraditions of"East"and"West,"anaspirationwhichIfullyshare. extensive monographs which constitute the central substance of anthropological DaleF.Eickelman inquiry. I hope that thisbookcontainsenoughofthe senseofdiscoverythat Ihave Hamra",SultanateofOman felt in creating it sothat readerswillbe prompted to read-it in conjunction with someof the monographs and articlesindicated inthe footnotes. The footnotes to eachsection and chapter are designedto be aguideto further readingsonparticu lar topics, and for this reason no separatelist of further readingsisincluded. To enhance the value of this book as a guide to contemporary anthropological research,I haveindicated the best availablesources,evenwhentheyareinforeign languages. This is deliberately contrary to someof the establishedconventionsof textbook writing. My purpose is to indicate the cutting edge of anthropological andrelated researchforthosewhowishtopursuegiventopics. The outline of this book first tookformwhenIwasaskedto prepareaseries on MiddleEastern anthropology for CBS-TV's "Sunrise Semester." Asthe title of the general series implies, these programs did not exactly reach a prime time note on transliteration One of the first books which I read on the MiddleEast wasCarletonCoon'sCara van.1 As a beginning student of Arabic,I appreciated his careful transcription. It facilitated my Identification of unfamiliarterms, and for languagesthat I did not speakit gaveme"ageneralidea of how wordswerespoken.Inatime ofpublishing economies,the willingness of Prentice-Hallto allowthe full transcription ofterms from MiddleEastern languages,particularly Arabic,reflectsa concernforeditorial quality that can no longerbe taken forgranted.Ihaveingeneralfollowedthe con ventions of theInternational JournalofMiddle EastStudies, although in deciding on how to transliterate colloquialterms I haveattemptedto followthe pronuncia tion of the areabeingdiscussed.For Arabic, the stroke overavowelindicatesitis lengthened: ii"as in rna,1asin bean, and ii asin noon;ay asinpayisadiphthong. The emphatic consonants (fj, ~, (, z, J:z) are indicated by dots under them; k.'1 is pronounced asin Bach;gh asthe r ofParisianFrench. Thecaynhasbeenrendered with a small,raisedc, andthehamza,aglottal stopasinthe Brooklynese"bottle," with an apostrophe ('). Often in spoken language,even in educated speech, the hamza isdropped; but I haveincluded itintransliterationinthoseinstanceswhere it seemednecessaryto doso.Exceptwhereotherwisenoted,onlythesingularform of Arabic words is indicated, with -sadded for plurals.Adjectivalforms of many 1Carleton S. Coon, Caravan: The Story ofthe Middle East, rev. ed. (New York: Holt, RinehartandWinston,Inc., 1961). .....i•• xiv NOTEON TRANSLITERATION Arabicplacenamesand wordsareindicated with anI attheendoftheword asin Arabic. Wordsand placenameswith common Englishforms appear asthey 'doin English and are not fully transliterated. Thus Mecca,not Makka; Fez, not Fiis; Quran, not Qur'an: Allah, not Allah; Islam, not Islam; and sultan, not sultan. Richard Bulliet of ColumbiaUniversityhaskindly checkedthe accuracyof trans literated PersianandTurkishwords. THE MIDDLE EASTDEFINED The term "Middle East" appears clear when it is employed in general common sense contexts, especially those which imply a contrast with other regionsof the world. Yet scholarsinterested in the regionareusuallyambivalentabout the term. The late Marshall Hodgson reluctantly conceded that of all the terms used to describe the area it was probably the best, but nonetheless proceeded to banish it from his majestic Venture ofIslamin favorof a privateterminology whichhe consideredto be free of all traces ofWesternethnocentrism.' Another historian recently expressed dissatisfaction with the term in an article entitled "Is There a MiddleEast?" but concluded, after auseful excursuson the characteristics which uniteanddividethe region,that it remainsthebestterm available." The specialist'sreluctance to speakofa "MiddleEast" withoutprovidingan extensiveglosson the term isdueto thecircumstancessurroundingitsorigins.Just like older, more geographicallylimited labels such as "the Near East" and "the Levant" that remainin use, the term "Middle East" wasnot coinedbyinhabitants of the region. It originated with nineteenth-century European military strategists lMarshallG. S. Hodgson, The VentureofIslam,Vol.1(Chicago: University ofChicago Press,1974),pp.60.,62. 2Nikki R. Keddie, "Is There a Middle East?" International Journal ofMiddle East Studies,4(1973),255-7l. • 2 INTRODUCTION and thus is unabashedly Euro-centered.In the geopolitics of the Englishmilitary, for example, the "Middle East" meant the commandresponsible for the region from the Nile to the Oxus; the lands to the east ofthe Oxus belonged to their Indian command." In terms ofcivilizationalboundaries such a divisionmadelittle sensesinceit cut the historically united(or at least interacting) Iranian plateau in two,but after allthe term wasnotcoinedwith scholarsinmind. In contrast, the terms most commonly used to describe North Africa'are more sharply defined, although once again this is largely due to the manner in which the region wasdivided by European colonial powers. In the first place, the term "NorthAfrica" should not be taken literally. Itis almost never used by area specialiststo includeEgypt. Itisgenerallytaken to meanMorocco,Algeria,Tunisia, and Libya. For Arab-speakers this region isgenerallyknown asthe "Maghrib," a term which literally means the Westand, more poetically, the land where the sun sets. This usageclearly indicatesthegeopoliticsofanearlierepoch, thatofthe first waves,ofMusliminvadersin the seventh andeighthcenturies. Theterm"Maghrib" is popularly used in French as well, largely because the region, lessLibya and a narrow mountainous zone in northern Morocco cededby the Frenchto Spain,was under French colonial domination until recent times; Evenin this more compact region, the imposition of colonial boundaries created distinctions which are still significant even though the period ofEuropean colonial domination is over.The country known today as the IslamicRepublic ofMauritania was considered by Arab geographers aspart oftheMaghribandtoward the beginningofthe twentieth century also came under effective French rule. Yet because it was attached to .French West Africa and administered from Dakar it isoften considered not to be part of the Middle East, despite the fact that the majority of its population is Muslimand Arabic-speaking,and the countryisamemberofthe ArabLeague.The Sudan, despite its large non-Muslim,non-Arabic-speaking minority, has no such difficulty in being considered part ofthe MiddleEast, but againthisislargelydue to the accident ofspheres ofcolonial rule-it fell under Egyptian ruleabout 1830, andby the endofthe nineteenthcenturywasruledbywhatwasformerlyanAnglo Egyptian condominium. In contemporary usage the "Middle East" istaken to encompass the region stretching from Rabat to Tehran, a distance ofroughly 3,400 miles.This isequal ~g J~ to the distance from NewYork City to Fairbanks,Alaska.To giveanotherindica tion of its vastness the Middle East includes territory on the three continents of jg ~ ~ Africa,Asia,and Europe (the European section ofTurkey). Whencertain features '" of the linguistic, religious, political, and historical complexities ofthe region are o emphasized,it isoften extended to encompass Afghanistan, Pakistan, and, atleast in the recent historical past, the states of Soviet Central Asia that are heavily ... influencedbyIslam. ... In this broader sense the Middle East has often been characterized as a "mosaic." Despite the popularity ofthismetaphor,ithassignificantdrawbacksfor 3Hodgson, Venture,pp.60-61. 3 4 INTRODUCTION Anthropologyand theMiddle East 5 the purposes of modern socialanthropology, for it doeslittle more than indicate Seen in terms of social and cultural features, the boundaries of the Middle the fact of significantinternal regionaldifferentiation. Oneofthebasicarguments East aremore elusive.TheregioniscloselyidentifiedwithIslamandiswhereIslam of this bookisthatthejuxtapositionofarangeofculturalandnonculturalfeatures won its first adherents, but thinking of it as a heartland of Islam can lead to a in the Middle East does not in itself make the region unique. Such a "mosaic" distorted view' of Islamic civilization.Muslims today are situated in awideband characterization canbe equallyappliedto theIndiansubcontinent,SoutheastAsia, which rangesfrom Indonesia and the Philippinesthrough the Indo-Pakistanisub the Balkans,and the SovietUnion, amongother locales.Rather, it isthepresence continent, SovietCentralAsia,Iran, and Turkey to the Arabic-speaking regionsof throughout the areaofkey cultural symbolsand their variantsandthroughshared the Middle East and North Africa.and BlackAfrica.'The epicenter of the total historical circumstancesthat this region canjustifiably be considered as a single Muslimpopulation liesbetween Iran and Pakistan,on the eastern edgeofthe area socioculturalarea. withwhichthisbook isconcerned. Inhistoricaltermsthe areadesignatedbythisbroader,contemporaryusageof Similarly,Arabic is often thought of as the languageprincipally identified the term "MiddleEast" coincidesroughlywiththefirstwaveofArabinvasionsand with Islamand the MiddleEast,yet unlessqualifiedthisassumptionalsoengenders withthe three largestMuslimempiresat their greatest extent-theUmayyad(661 seriousdistortions,oneofwhichisto diminishthe roleattributedtoPersianculture 750), the early Abbasid(750-ca.-800), and the Ottoman as it was from the six inIslamiccivilization.AlthoughArabictoday istheprincipallanguageofthelargest teenth through the eighteenth centuries. Geographically the region also shares part of the MiddleEast, this was not alwaysthecase.For a considerableperiod common characteristics. As a whole, it is semiaridand characterizedby the pre after the initial Islamic conquests of the seventh century, Arabic had still not valenceof irrigation agriculture and pastoral nomadism.However, it is not fully becomethe'principallanguageofeithercommonersortheindigenouseliteofmany delineated by natural frontiers. Althoughthe regionispartially cut off from sub of the conquered regions. Likewise, during the period of the hegemony ofthe SaharanAfricaandfromthe Indo-Pakistanisubcontinentbymountainsanddeserts, Ottoman Empire from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries, Ottoman its present northern boundarieswiththeSovietMuslimterritories, forexample,are Turkishtended to be the principallinguafranca ofthe eliteinmuchofthe region. morepoliticalthan natural. Persian was also commonly employed in a similar role in regions beyond those whereit isspokentoday. The majority of the region's inhabitants are Muslim,but only occasionally has this fact provided a base of common sentiment and identity. Currently an ethnic irredentism based upon common languageison the upsurgein the Middle Eastaselsewherein the world,but thiswasnot alwaysthe case.Thusforoverhalf acenturythe elite ofTurkey havestressedtheir ties withEuropemorethanthose with their Muslim neighbors.Egyptian elitesprior to the 1950s, and againin this decadein certain contexts, stressedthe Mediterraneanidentity oftheir countryas much as its Arab or Middle Eastern identity. The same is true for the various countries of North Africa. Historians such as Fernand Braudel have persuasively arguedthe casefor consideringthe countriesonbothsidesoftheMediterraneanas asinglesocietyforextendedhistoricalperiods:" Tosumup,despiteitsdrawbacks,theterm "MiddleEast" continuesto bethe most acceptable of available terms, providedthat it isnot taken unreflectivelyto indicate ahomogeneitywhichthe regiondoesnot possess,muchasissuggestedby the misleading concept ofthe "Arab mind" whichhas recentlyresurfacedinsome popular literature. Alternatives are occasionallyintroduced, such asthe acronym SWANA (South WestAsiaandNorthAfrica),andjustified onthegroundthatthey arecompletely devoidof allhistorical, political,and religiousassumptions.Yetall suchterms.sufferequallyfrom unfamiliarity. Furthermore, itispreciselythe shift ingculturaland historicalrealitiesthatmust betaken into accountinanymeaning- FIGURE 1-2 Muslims in the world today. Shaded areas: majority population;areas with tranverse lines: minority population. (AdaptedfromAramcoHandbook,rev.ed. [Dhahran: 4Pemand Braude1, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Arabian AmericanOilCompany,1968],p,230.) PhilipII(NewYork: Harper&Row, 1975).
The list of books you might like
