A Companion to the Anthropology of the Middle East

A Companion to the Anthropology of the Middle East presents a comprehensive overview of current trends and future directions in anthropological research and activism in the modern Middle East. Featuring contributions from a wide range of distinguished contemporary scholars of Middle East anthropology, chapters encompass the entire breadth of the region s cultural, social, political, and religious diversity. Numerous issues covering various aspects of Middle Eastern anthropological concerns are addressed topics drawn from religion, the arts, language, and politics to political economy, the law, human rights, multiculturalism, and globalization. Within each topic explored, individual authors focus on the most pressing methodological and theoretical concerns raised by contemporary scholars, along with key conceptual breakthroughs, gaps in the literature, and fruitful areas for further research. Timely and thought–provoking, A Companion to the Anthropology of the Middle East is an invaluable resource for anthropologists and other social scientists seeking a better understanding of the complex relationship between the East and West in our new global environments.

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgments

Preface

 

PART ONE

Introduction: Theoretical and Conceptual Issues

01: Volume Overview
Deniz Kandiyotii 

02: Anthropology, Theory and Middle Eastern Studies
Suad Joseph

03: Structure and Agency in the Anthropology of the Middle East
Soraya Altorki

04: Anthropology and Reflections on the Politics of Middle East Studies
Steve Caton 

PART TWO

Culture and Everyday Life

05: The Politics of Aesthetics in the Muslim Middle East
Martin Stokes

06: Dreams and the Miraculous
Amira Mittermaier

07: Refiguring Islam
Nada Moumtaz

08: In the Garden of the Sexes
Shahla Haeri

09: Trajectories of Gendered Labor
Livia Wick

10: The Politics of Poetry
Andrew Bush 

PART THREE

Social Relations and Social Movements

11: Medical Anthropology in the Middle East and North Africa
Jessica Newman and Marcia Inhorn

12: From Rural Development to Environmental Anthropology
Nicholas Hopkins

13: Displacement and Dispossession
Dawn Chatty

14: The Anthropology of Humanitarianism in the Middle East
Ilana Feldman

15: Anthropologies of Middle Eastern Diasporas
Paul Silverstein

16a: The Invention of the Mizrahim,
Ella Shohat

16b: The Mizrahi Cinema of Displacement
Ella Shohat

17: Social Movements and Revolution
Zeina Zaatari

 

PART FOUR

Law, Politics and the State

18: Justice Between Islamic Shari`a and Liberal Law
Hussein Ali Agrama 

19: The Notion of Arab Culture and the Colonial Present
Mayssoun Sukarieh

20: Rethinking the Anthropology of Neoliberalism
Julia Elyachar

21: States of Aspiration: New Questions for Middle East Anthropology
Michelle Obeid

22: Notes on the Post–Ottoman: Anatolian Armenians as an Ethnographic Perspective
Hakem Al Rustom

23: Reframing the Middle Eastern City
Kamran Asdar Ali

PART FIVE

Pop Culture and New Media

24: Popular Culture
John Schaefer

25: New Media and Electronic Networks
Mark Peterson

Index

Soraya Altorki is Professor of Anthropology at the American University in Cairo (AUC). She is the author or co–author of five books and many journal articles and book chapters in the area of the anthropology of the Arab world, including studies on the family, gender, youth, religion, and political economy.