1. Teaching and Learning Methodologies

Transcription

1 Culture and Power in the Middle East (ANTH 118b) Instructor: Pascal Menoret Office: Lemberg 227 Class hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 3:30pm-4:50pm Classroom: Brown 224 Office hours: Thursday, 1pm-3pm This course examines the peoples and societies of the region that Westerners have named the Middle East from an anthropological perspective. It explores the issues posed by orientalism and power dynamics, and the role of anthropology in the formation of the idea of the Middle East as an area of study and military intervention. The course is divided into sections devoted to understanding and problematizing concepts and themes that are central to understanding the region: tribe and state, family and kinship, gender and sexuality, honor and shame, tradition and modernity, and religion and secularism. Course materials will include critical ethnographies based on fieldwork, films, and other visual arts. 1. Teaching and Learning Methodologies Culture and Power in the Middle East is organized around readings, lecture, and classroom discussion. The required readings are often difficult, and the aim of the course is not to help you understand the broader anthropological and political debates that our authors are part of, and to offer a lucid interpretation of their texts and positions. Close reading of the texts and class discussion are at the core of this course s methodology: you are expected to read all the week s texts in advance, to think about them carefully, and to participate actively in our discussions. The learning outcomes will be assessed through three written assignments and one oral presentation. You are expected to attend classes and to engage in critical discussion of the texts. Submit work on time. You must complete all assigned coursework to pass the course. It is your responsibility to submit all assignments on time by . Work not turned in, or turned in after the due date without a documented explanation will receive an F. There will be no tolerance for plagiarism. Academy integrity is the acknowledgment of what we owe to other writers and researchers. Plagiarism is the non-acknowledgment of our sources and ranges from improperly quoting to paraphrasing to copying an author without admitting it. Plagiarism will not be tolerated, and all cases will be submitted to the university administration. For more information on academic integrity at Brandeis University, see: Address your concerns and issues during office hours. If you experience difficulties with the readings and the assignments, see me as soon as possible. Office hours are opportunities to discuss the course material, get my advice and help on how to best work on assignments, and inform me of issues you may have with the course.

2 2. Learning Outcomes There is no prerequisite for this course. You will learn how to describe precisely complex arguments about the Middle East. You will acquire knowledge of most of the prominent issues related to culture and power in the Middle East, with a focus on Arab societies. You will be expected to interpret the texts, to understand their context, and to reconstitute the fieldwork that gives them meaning and content. You will learn how to craft better papers, and will be introduced to social anthropology through the reading of some of its key texts. 3. Assignments a) In class participation. (25% of the final grade) b) First assignment: you will write a reflection paper based on at least three readings and organized around a broad issue. You will come to my office to discuss your main essay question and the readings you select. Assignment due on March 1. (20% of the final grade) c) Second assignment: write an essay that studies a film from an ethnographic perspective. Each student will choose a different film (see list below) and will organize their essays around a series of visuals from the film. Assignment due on April 1. (20% of the final grade) d) Third assignment: you will write a research paper on (a) either a current affair topic, which you will analyze with the course s tools (drone war, torture, military occupation, etc.), or (b) fieldwork conducted in or around campus, or (c) an ethnographic interview, introduced and commented. You will come to my office to discuss your topic and methodology. You will present and discuss your draft with the class on either April 14 or 19. Assignment due on May 1. (35% of the final grade) List of films for the second assignment: - Youssef Chahine, Cairo Station (Bab al-hadid), Egypt, 1958 ( - Salah Abu Seif, I am Free (Ana horra), Egypt 1959 ( - Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers (La battaglia di Algeri), Italy-Algeria 1966 ( - Youssef Chahine, The Land (Al-ardh), Egypt 1969 ( - Shadi Abdessalam, The Night of Counting the Years (Al-mumiya ), Egypt 1969 ( - Tewfik Saleh, The Dupes (Al-makhdu un), Syria 1973 ( - Moustapha Akkad, The Message (Al-risala), Lebanon-Libya-Morocco-UK-US 1977 (

3 - Youssef Chahine, Alexandria Why? (Iskandereyya leh?), Egypt, 1979 ( - Sherif Arafa, Terrorism and Kebab (Al-irhab wa-l-kabab), Egypt, 1992 ( - Ferid Boughedir, A Summer in La Goulette (Un été à La Goulette), Tunisia 1996 ( - Ziad Doueiri, West Beirut (Beyrout al-gharbiyya), Lebanon, 1998 ( - Elia Suleiman, Divine Intervention (Yadon ilahiya), Palestine 2002 ( - Marwan Hamed, The Yacoubian Building ( Imarat Ya qubian), Egypt, 2006 ( 4. Course Schedule January 14: Introduction - The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, part 5: Crude Diplomacy (PBS Series 1992), Week 1 What is the Middle East? January 19: What is the Middle East? - Waleed Hazbun, The Middle East through the Lens of Critical Geopolitics, in Bonine, Amanat and Gasper (eds.), Is There a Middle East? The Evolution of a Geopolitical Concept (Stanford University Press 2012), p Roger Adelson, British and US Use and Misuse of the Term Middle East, in ibid., p Diana K. Davis, Scorched Earth: The Problematic Environmental History that defines the Middle East, in ibid., p January 21: What is orientalism? - Edward Said, Orientalism (Vintage 1979), Introduction and Chapter 1, I-II, p Week 2 Orientalism and colonialism January 26: The orientalism debate - Bernard Lewis, The Question of Orientalism, The New York Review of Books, June 24, Edward Said and Oleg Grabar, Orientalism: An Exchange, The New York Review of Books, August 12, January 28: Colonial ethnography - Edward Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People (Oxford University Press 1940), Preface, Introduction and Chapter One, p Week 3 Decolonizing ethnography February 2: Functionalist anthropology

4 - Talal Asad, Introduction to Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter (Humanities Press 1973), p Talal Asad, Two European Images of Non-European Rule, in ibid., p February 4: Decolonizing ethnography? - Pierre Bourdieu, Algerian Landing, Ethnography, 5-4, 2004, p Pierre Bourdieu, Foreword to Travail et Travailleurs en Algérie, Anthropology Today, 19-2, 2003 [1963], p Pierre Bourdieu and Abdelmalek Sayad, Colonial Rule and Cultural Sabir, Ethnography, 5-4, 2004 [1964], p Week 4 The predicament of Western ethnography February 9: The predicament of Western ethnography, 1 - Paul Rabinow, Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco (University of California Press 1977), Introduction and chapters 1-3, p February 11: The predicament of Western ethnography, 2 - Raphael Patai, The Arab Mind (Scribner 1973), chapters 7, 8, and 15, p and Week 5 Ethnography and the US military February 23: Why the US army loves anthropology - US Army, Counterinsurgency Manual, 2006, accessible at: chapter 3, 35 p. - Roberto González, Toward Mercenary Anthropology? The New US Army Counterinsurgency Manual FM 3-24 and the Military-Anthropology Complex, Anthropology Today, 23-3, 2007, p Roberto González, On tribes and bribes: Iraq tribal studies, al-anbar s awakening, and social science, European Journal of Anthropology, 53, 2009, p February 25: Why the US army should fear (feminist) anthropologists - Rochelle Davis, Culture as a Weapon System, MERIP, 255, 2010, p Laleh Khalili, The New (and Old) Classic of Counterinsurgency, MERIP, 255, 40, 2010, p Laleh Khalili, The Uses of Happiness in Counterinsurgency, Social Text, 32-1, 2014, p Charles Hirschkind and Saba Mahmood, Feminism, the Taliban, and the Politics of Counterinsurgency, Anthropological Quarterly, 75-2, 2002, p Week 6 Urban ethnography March 1: Urban ethnography - Pascal Menoret, Joyriding in Riyadh: Oil, Urbanism, and Road Revolt (Cambridge University Press 2014), chapters 1, 2, and 3. March 3: Ethnography of youth and revolt - Pascal Menoret, Joyriding in Riyadh, chapters 4, 5, and 6.

5 Week 7 Ethnography of gender, 1 March 8: Gender and modernity - Lila Abu-Lughod, Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and its Others, American Anthropologist, 104-3, 2002, p Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (Yale University Press 1993), Introduction and chapters 7, 8, and 9, p. 1-8 and March 10: Gender and sexuality - Joseph Massad, Desiring Arabs (The University of Chicago Press 2007), Introduction, p Kamran Asdar Ali, Myths, Lies, and Impotence: Structural Adjustment and Male Voice in Egypt, Comparative Study of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 23-1/2, 2003, p Week 8 Ethnography of gender, 2/Ethnography of religion, 1 March 15: Transgender, transsexuality, homosexuality - Afsaneh Najmabadi, Transing and Transpassing across Sex-Gender Walls in Iran, Women s Study Quarterly, 36-3/4, 2008, p Joseph Massad, Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World, Public Culture, 14-2, 2002, p March 17: Religious revival and politics - Charles Hirschkind, What is Political Islam? MERIP, 205, 1997, p Talal Asad, The Limits of Religious Criticism in the Middle East: Notes on Islamic Public Argument, in Talal Asad, Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam (Johns Hopkins University Press 1993), p Charles Hirschkind, Civic Virtue and Religious Reason: An Islamic Counterpublic, Cultural Anthropology, 16-1, 2001, p Week 9 Ethnography of religion, 2 March 22: Religious revival and urban spaces - Lara Deeb and Mona Harb, Sanctioned Pleasures: Youth, Piety and Leisure in Beirut, MERIP, 245, 2007, p Lara Deeb and Mona Harb, Culture as History and Landscape: Hizballah s Efforts to Shape an Islamic Milieu in Lebanon, The Arab Studies Journal, 19-1, 2011, p March 24: Religious revival and neoliberal piety - Mona Atia, Building a House in Heaven: Pious Neoliberalism and Islamic Charity in Egypt (University of Minnesota Press 2013), chapters 1, 2, and 3. Week 10 Ethnography of religion, 3 March 29: Religious revival and medical anthropology - Sherine Hamdy, Our Bodies Belong to God: Organ Transplants, Islam, and the Struggle for Human Dignity in Egypt (University of California Press 2012), Introduction and chapters 1 and 2, p

6 March 31: Violence and death - Charles Hirschkind, Cultures of Death: Media, Religion, Bioethics, Social Text, 25-3, 2008, p Faisal Devji, The Terrorist in Search of Humanity (Columbia University Press 2008), chapters 1 and 2, p Week 11 Ethnography of violence and mobility April 5: Humanism and terror - Faisal Devji, The Terrorist in Search of Humanity, chapters 4 and 5, p April 7: Migration and empire - Engseng Ho, Empire through Diasporic Eyes: A View from the Other Boat, Comparative Studies in History and Society, 46-2, 2004, p Engseng Ho, Yemenis on Mars: The End of Mahjar (Diaspora)? MERIP, 211, 1999, p Engseng Ho, The Graves of Tarim: Genealogy and Mobility Across the Indian Ocean (University of California Press 2006), Preface and chapter 1, p Week 12 Ethnography of labor April 12: Migration and labor - Andrew Gardner, City of Strangers: Gulf Migration and the Indian Community in Bahrain (Cornell University Press 2010), chapters 1, 2, and 3, p April 14-19: Presentations