Fall 2008
Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East
New College of Florida
Professor Uzi Baram
Class meets: Tuesday and Thursday 10:30 - 11:50 am
Classroom: Anthropology Lab
Office Hours: Monday 11-12, Tuesday 1-2, & drop-ins anytime I’m in my office are welcomed but time may be limited.
Office: College Hall 205. Office Telephone Number: 487-4217
Email: Baram@ncf.edu
Web Page: http://faculty.ncf.edu/baram/P&CMideast.htm
This course offers a cultural anthropological perspective on the region stretching from the North African shores of the Atlantic to the Anatolian shores of the Black Sea, from the Red Sea to Central Asia. Key issues for the peoples and cultures of the region will include gender, kinship, ethnic divisions and conflicts, and the social construction of history. As an anthropology course, there will be a focus on comparisons among and between cultures and societies, issues of social power and social change, and cultural diversity. A central metaphor for the course will be the notion of the anthropologist as traveler; that notion will open up the accounts of travel to the region as well as the ethnographic endeavor in the Middle East. Throughout the term, the Middle East will be explored both as a locality and as a discourse. Prerequisite: previous course work in anthropology or permission of the instructor.
Course Objectives
1. To present an anthropological perspective on the Middle East and an anthropological understanding of diversity in the Middle East. This course provides the opportunity to explore some of the anthropological insights into the Middle East and to examine some of the organizing principles used by social theorists for the region. This semester, special attention will be given to anthropological concerns with representations.
2. To explore the peoples and cultures of the Middle East, including such topics as cultural geography, ethnicity and ethnic interactions, cultural practices, religions and traditions, history and heritage. Since the Middle East is marked by ethnic primordialist conceptualizations of identity, we will open up the issues for social identity by examining geography, kinship, and heritage in the lives of Middle Eastern peoples.
3. To discuss the various influences producing unifying and stabilizing effects on the area, its peoples, and cultures and those factors causing dislocation, discords, and internal tensions. As an anthropology course, we will focus on comparisons among and between cultures and societies, issues of social power, social change, and cultural diversity.
Course Requirements
You are required to attend each and every class, complete readings prior to the class for which it is assigned, be ready to discuss those readings, write response papers to the ethnographies, participate in discussions, present on specific topics as requested by the professor, be attentive to current events regarding the region, and complete a semester paper. Details on the papers are provided at the end of the syllabus.
Satisfactory completion of the course requires attendance (with the usual allowances for college-approved absences) and successful completion of the written and oral presentations by their deadlines. I am available to discuss issues and questions from the course before class meets and during office hours; raising questions is an expected component of your contributions to the class. If you have a question or concern, please ask the professor.
Format for Class Meetings
The course will consist of lectures, readings, discussion, and hopefully some films. The full participation of all students is encouraged and expected. I prefer to run the course as a seminar: a seminar requires the active support of each and every student in the class. The discussions will revolve around the course topics and readings and your research projects.
Resources
Required Readings
· Abu-Lughod, Lila 1999 Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. University of California Press, Berkeley.
· Friedl, Erika 1989 Women of Deh Koh: Lives in an Iranian Village. Penguin Books, New York.
Supplemental Readings
I have high expectations regarding your knowledge of the Middle East. While there are no prerequisites in terms of course work in the Middle East, I would like you to be familiar with some of the scholarship on the region.
For other-than-Anthropological perspectives on the Middle East, the following are the standard texts for the history, political science, and the humanities. Held in high esteem by scholars, Albert Hourani’s (1991) A History of the Arab Peoples is a worthwhile investment for understanding the history of the region. The Ottoman Empire laid the foundation for the modern Middle East; Donald Quataert (2000) The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 is a fine introduction to the empire and its epoch. For an overview of the politics of each country in the region, see David S. Sorenson 2008 An Introduction to the Modern Middle East: History, Religion, Political Economy, Politics as well as The Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East, edited by Reeva S. Simon, Philip Mattar, and Richard W. Bulliet. For specific details on the history of the region, the reference section of the Cook Library has The Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire and Joseph Esposito’s The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World.
Study of the Middle East is haunted by Orientalism. For the critique against Western scholarship, particularly literature, on the region, see Edward Said's (1978) Orientalism. I recommend that all students read Orientalism and commentaries on that important book.
The major North American newspapers contain daily stories on the region; English language editions of the major newspapers of the Middle East are available on the internet as are many other resources for the region. You should become familiar with these resources.
Films
Several films are available at the Cook Library. Some films, placed on reserve, will be required for the course; other films and websites will be recommended as complementary for course units. The class should organize some times to screen them together. If you have any recommendations for films and music, please tell the class.
Accessing Professor Baram
I will strive to arrive early to the classroom for each class meeting: that is a wonderful time to raise any questions about the course. My office hours are organized as open door: there is no need to sign up for a time slot, just come by my office. If there is a crowd of students, I will address your specific questions; if you are the only student to arrive, you have my attention to discuss nearly anything related to the course, anthropology, or the Middle East. Beyond office hours, if the door to my College Hall office is open and I’m free, you can drop in and we can chat. In addition, I will reply to emails but please be polite in your requests and acknowledge my response to your questions/concerns.
Beyond the Classroom
The class meets for only a few hours a week but the issues and concerns should extend beyond the classroom walls. The professor is available for discussing issues and insights but class members are expected to explore the ideas, examples, and arguments outside of the classroom with each other. Everyone should be reading the newspapers (most major newspapers from the region are available in English editions on-line; knowing the local languages is even better for research purposes), screening films and documentaries on the Middle East, reading the large corpus of scholarship and current flood of commentary on the region, and eating Middle Eastern foods. You can gain insights from members of the local Middle Eastern communities, lectures at nearby universities, and talking to each other. The course is focused on specific anthropological goals; your efforts need not be limited to those concerns. Please discuss a lot among yourselves.
New College Policies
· A student claiming a need for special accommodations because of a disability must work with the Counseling and Wellness Center, which will establish the need for specific accommodations and communicate them to the instructor.
· Any suspected instance of plagiarism will be handled in accordance with New College policy on academic dishonesty.
· No student shall be compelled to attend class or sit for an examination at a day or time when he or she would normally be engaged in a religious observance or on a day or time prohibited by his or her religious belief. Students are expected to notify their instructors if they intend to be absent for a class or announced examination, in accordance with this policy, prior to the scheduled meeting.
Mini-Class
8/25 Reading the Middle East: Ethnographies and Other Perspectives
I. Introduction to the Middle East: History and its Divides, Geography and its Significance, and the Disciplining of a Region
8/28 Geography and the Cultural Landscape of the Middle East
No Readings assigned
9/2 The Contemporary Middle East: A Mosaic of Issues/Cultures
Readings:
1. Stephen Humphreys 2005 “Hard Realities: Population Growth and Economic Stagnation” Between Memory and Desire, pp.1-22.
9/4 Past is Present: Traditions and History for the Modern Middle East
Readings:
1. Dror Ze’evi 2004 “Back to Napoleon: Thoughts on the Beginning of the Modern Era in the Middle East” Mediterranean Historical Review 19(1):73-94
2. Molly Greene 2005 “The Ottoman Experience” Daedalus Spring:88-99.
3. Michael Herzfeld 1981 “Meaning and Morality: A Semiotic Approach to Evil Eye Accusations in a Greek Village” American Ethnologist 8(3): 560-574.
4. Sami Zubaida 1994 “National, Communal, and Global Dimensions in Middle Eastern Food Cultures” In Culinary Cultures of the Middle East, pp.33-45.
9/9 Anthropology Encounters Orientalism: From the Grand Tour to Tourism
Readings:
1. Michael Gilsenan 1982 "An Anthropologist’s Introduction" Recognizing Islam.
2. Elizabeth W. Fernea 1965 "Excursion into the Country" a selection from Guests of the Sheikh.
II. Bedouin, Fellahin, and Urbanites
9/11 Honor and Shame among Bedouin
Readings:
1. Ahmed Abou-Zeid 1994 "Honour and Shame Among Bedouin of Egypt" Honour and Shame: Values of Mediterranean Society, pp. 245-259.
2. Andrew Shryock and Sally Howell 2001 "`Ever a Guest in our House': The Emir Abdullah, Shaykh Majid al`Adwan, and the Practice of Jordanian House Politics, as remembered by Umm Sultan, the Widow of Majid" International Journal of Middle East Studies 33(2):247-269.
3. Veiled Sentiments Chapter 1
9/16 Identity, Ideology, and Gender among the Awlad `Ali
Readings:
1. Veiled Sentiments Chapters 2-4
9/18 Poetry, Discourse, and Meanings
Readings:
1. Veiled Sentiments Chapters 5-8
RESPONSE PAPER DUE ON 9/19 at noon to my mailbox
9/23 History, Power, Representations
Readings:
1. Listen to Umm Kulthum at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90326836
2. Aref Abu-Rabia 2005 “The Evil Eye and Cultural Beliefs among the Bedouin Tribes of the Negev, Middle East” Folklore 116(3):241-154.
9/25 Urban Life in the Middle East
Readings:
1. Janet Abu-Lughod 1987 "The Islamic City- Historical Myth, Islamic Essence,
and Contemporary Relevance" International Journal of Middle East Studies
19(2)155-76.
2. Fuad Khuri 1987 “Ideological Constants and Urban Living” In The Middle East City: Ancient Traditions Confront a Modern World, pp. 69-79
9/30: Workgroups on Middle Eastern Cities
Groups will research selected cities of the Middle East
10/2 Presentations on Cities
Readings:
1. Justin McGuiness 2001 “Neighbourhood notes: texture and streetscape in the Médina of Tunis’” In the Walled Arab City in Literature, Architecture, and History: the Living Medina in the Maghrib, pp. 97-120.
10/7 Peasants: From Everyday Resistance to Revolts
Readings
1. Akram Khater and Antoine Khater 1993 "Assaf: A Peasant of Mount Lebanon" In Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East.
2. Leila Fawaz 1993 "Sumaya: A Lebanese Housemaid" In Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East.
3. Eric Wolf 1968 “Algeria” Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century, pp. 209-247.
10/9 Workgroups on Representations
Start work on the final course project
FALL BREAK
III. Social Relationships: Kinship and Gender
10/21 Family in an Iranian Village
Readings:
1. Women of Deh Koh Prologue - Chapter 5
10/23 Gender in Villages
Readings:
1. Women of Deh Koh Chapter 6 - Epilogue
2. Fernea and Fernea "Symbolizing Roles: Behind the Veil" In Conformity and Conflict.
3. Carol Delancy 1995 "Untangling the Meaning of Hair in Turkish Society" In Off With Her Head! The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture, pp. 53-75.
4. Julie Peteet 1993 "Authenticity and Gender: The Presentation of Culture" In Arab Women: Old Boundaries, New Frontiers, pp.49-62.
RESPONSE PAPER IS DUE on 10/24 at noon to my mailbox
IV. Ethnicity in the Modern Middle East
10/28 Millets, Mandates, Madness
Readings:
1. Shulamith HarEven 1995 “Portrait of a Terrorist” The Vocabulary of Peace.
2. Celia Rothenberg 1999 “Understanding Ghada: The Multiple Meanings of an Attempted Stabbing” Middle East Report Spring:10-12.
3. Eyal Ben-Ari 1989 “Masks and Soldiering: The Israeli Army and the Palestinian Uprising” Cultural Anthropology 4(4):372-389.
4. Making Soldiers Preface-Interlude 3
10/30 Masculinity and the Military: Emotions in the Middle East
Readings:
1. Hassan Daoud 2000 “Those Two Heavy Wings of Manhood: On Moustaches” In Imagined Masculinities, pp. 273-280
2. Making Soldiers Chapter 3-Interlude 5
11/4 Enemies: the Other in the Middle East
Readings:
1. Making Soldiers Chapter 5-Epilogue
2. Vassos Argyrou 1997 "`Keep Cyprus Clean': Littering, Pollution, and Otherness" Cultural Anthropology 12(2):159-178.
RESPONSE PAPER DUE on 11/5 at noon to my mailbox
V. Religion in the Middle East
11/6 Presentation on Religions
Readings:
1. G.P. Makris 2007 Chapter 4 (The Five Pillars). Islam in the Middle East: A Living Tradition, pp. 95-141
2. Stephen Humphreys 2005 Chapter 6 (Profane and Sacred Politics: The Ends of Power in the Middle East). Between Memory and Desire, pp. 131-147.
11/11 Veteran’s Day – class will not meet
VI. Multidimensional Change in the Middle East
11/13 Archaeology in the Modern Middle East
Readings:
1. Pyramids and Nightclubs Chapters 1-3
2. Neil Silberman 1989 Egypt: An Uneasy Inheritance. In Between Past and Present: Archaeology, Ideology, and Nationalism in the Modern Middle East, pp.153-168.
3. Skim The Plateau – Official Website of Dr. Zahi Hawass http://guardians.net/hawass/
11/18 Representations of the Middle East: Continuing Orientalism?
Readings:
1. Pyramids and Nightclubs Chapters 4-5
11/20 Workgroups on Ethnographic Representations
Groups focus on comparing the course ethnographies for the final course product
11/25 Tourists in an Antique Land
Readings:
1. Pyramids and Nightclubs Chapter 6
2. Heba Aziz 2001 "Cultural Keepers, Cultural Brokers: The Landscape of Women and Children – A Case Study of the Town Dahab in South Sinai" In Contested Landscapes, pp. 121-132.
3. Joseph Hobbs 1989 “The Tourist” (Chapter 10) and “The New Golden Calf” (Chapter 11). Mount Sinai, pp.261-309.
11/27 Thanksgiving – class will not meet
VII. Conclusions
12/2 Conclusions: New Concerns and Opportunities in the Anthropology of the Middle East
Details on the Course Requirements
I. Discussion
Quality, not quantity is the key for in-class discussions. I expect you to use your background in anthropology to situate the relationships between ethnographer and subject, explore the process of ethnography as well as the product of that research, measure each volume against your other anthropological readings (and ultimately among the course materials themselves), and raise questions about the anthropological perspective on the Middle East. You will also be assigned topics for brief presentations during the term on selected topics such as the cities, religions, and foods of the Middle East. As noted earlier in this syllabus, class attendance is required and participation is obligatory.
II. Response Papers
Response papers require pulling together the ideas and data in each one of the course's texts. The due date for each response paper is noted on the syllabus. It is crucial that you are prepared with your response papers for class discussions.
A three to five page essay for each of the first three volumes is requested. Each response paper needs to focus upon the scholarly contribution of the book; the book's goals and its success in reaching those goals; and its effectiveness in presenting an aspect of the peoples and cultures of the Middle East. The key to the assignment is to convey a sense of the volume within the context of the course. General questions to consider:
1. What were the goals for the volume? How successfully were the goals met?
2. What was the relationship between the ethnographer and the subjects? How were the subjects represented?
3. Whose voice(s) do we hear?
4. What is the significance of the volume? Does it build on previous scholarship and point toward future research directions?
5. What is the audience for the volume? Is it an appropriate one? Is there a lasting legacy for the ethnography?
I want to encourage you to experiment with different types of interpretations for each volume. Anthropology can be analytical, contextual, and emotional. Any type of discussion within the range of anthropological scholarship can be used for the papers (though with such short papers, you must focus on one type of response rather than all of them). Since the texts are very different in terms of theoretical approach, geography, topics, and style, you should consider the appropriate response for each of the texts. The dates due are noted on the syllabus; the deadlines are firm.
III. Two Options for the Final Course Project
The central issue for the final course project is representation; the argument in anthropology focuses on the perspective gained from ethnographic research enriches our understandings of people’s lives and social worlds. For the final assignment, which should build on the readings and themes from the entire semester’s readings, lectures, and discussions, a simple question is posed: To whom/toward what purposes is the anthropological perspective significant?
The Expectation: a critical contextual review of an ethnography on the Middle East and its analysis. You need to explicitly discuss the volume in light of issues and framework from the course. I expect you to gain background in the history and cultural geography of the place and people. The response papers are the opportunity to work through the analysis, practice for this final project.
The first part of the final course project is due before Fall Break. The assignment focuses on the background for the case study and is due on October 10th at noon to my mailbox. The 3-5 page paper should explain your central issue in the subject (whether the ethnographic interview or the ethnography) and a focus point for your final paper (see the daily and unit topics for suggestions).
The final paper is due on December 8th at noon; the deadline is firm. There are multiple components for analysis: insights into the contemporary Middle East, literary value, theory, method, and data. At the end of the semester, we will discuss your findings as a means to answer two general questions: Do ethnographies matter? What is the use of anthropology (especially in these times)?
A. A Critical Evaluation of an Ethnography – similar to the response papers, this option offers the opportunity to read another ethnography from the region and explore the representation in terms of the insights developed over the semester. A list of possibilities will be available early in the semester. The critical evaluation must include comparisons to the four ethnographies read in the course, with special emphasis on Pyramids and Nightclubs.
The final paper, 10-15 pages long, is not a book report but a critical engagement with the ethnography, exploring the peoples/places discussed in the volume, the insights into contemporary society and the larger Middle East culture area, and an evaluation of the scholar’s analysis and your interpretation of that evaluation. Please review the course objectives when completing this assignment.
B. A Mini-Ethnography of a Family of Middle Eastern Descendant - while
you can not travel to the region during the Spring semester, this option offers
the possibility of exploring one of the key themes from the cultural
anthropology of the Middle East while you are located in Sarasota: kinship. You
will need to choose this option early in the term (September 23rd)
and review the process for working with human subjects with the professor
(projects completed for a course do not require IRB approval but I want you
informed on human subjects). With the October deadline focused on background for
the case study, much of the planning must be completed for this option before
the Fall Break.
For the project, you need to locate someone of Middle Eastern descendant or origin, gain their permission to engage in participant-observation research with their family (not just the individual) over several visits to their home. The research must be designed and implemented in the context of course concerns; explicit use of the course ethnographies, with special emphasis on the kinship issues and notions of travel in Pyramids and Nightclubs are required. Students who successfully completed Introduction to Cultural Anthropology appreciate the time investment for ethnographic research, even a limited project like this one. The final paper (15-20 pages in length) will be richly descriptive as well as providing a focus on kinship and demonstrating your grasp of the concerns with representation from the course.