Course Topics, Readings , and Videos:

Week 1:  August 20-24:  Anthropology of the Middle East , North Africa and Central Asia

The Geography and History of the Middle East .

Read:  Eickelman, Chapter 1.

Videos: Middle East Part One: 1900-1956 From the End of the Ottoman Empire to the Suez Crisis; Part Two: 1956-1991 From the Suez Crisis to the Gulf War.

Week 2:  August 27-31: Studying and Intellectualizing the Middle East

Geographic Expeditions, Scholarly Inquiries, and Imperial Interests.

Read: Eickelman, Chapter 2.

Video: Edward Said on Orientalism.

Week 3:  September 3-6: Economy and Society

Village and Community Studies; Resource Use; Transnational Conflict.

Read: Eickelman, Chapter 3.

Read:  Ilahiane, Hsain. 2001. The Break-up of the Ksar Community: Settlement Change Patterns and Environmental Management in Southern Morocco .  Africa Today 48 (1): 21-50 (On Reserve in Room 318 Curtiss Hall)

Slide presentation: The Ziz Oasis Farming Systems and Ecology.

Video: Rivers of Fire

Start reading Mobile Pastoralists.

Week 4: September 10-14: Pastoral Nomadism: goats, sheep, camels, and 4x4 trucks.

The Political Ecology Context of Pastoral Nomadism; the Ideology of Equality; Common Property Management; Oil Finds and Culture Change; Adieu Camels!  Hello pick up trucks!

Read: Eickelman, Chapter 4.

Read: Ilahiane, Hsain. 1999. Berber Agdal Institution: Indigenous Range Management in the Atlas Mountains . Ethnology 1: 21-45.  (On Reserve in Room 318 Curtiss Hall).

Discussion of Mobile Pastoralists

Week 5:  September 17-21: Tribal Organization and Kinship Systems.

What is a Tribe? Personal and Family Relationships; Marriage and Practical Kinship; Berber Family and Kinship.  

Read: Eickelman, Chapters 6 and 7.

Week 6: September 24-28: Urban Development and Issues in Muslim Societies.
The Islamic City in the Muslim World; Colonialism and Urban Planning; Shantytowns; Cities Now.

Read: Eickelman, Chapter 5.

Video: Bab-El Oued City

Start reading Veiled Sentiments.

Week 7: October 1-5: Ideologies of Gender and Ethnicity.
Sense of Place; Honor and Shame; Sexuality; Identity and Ethnicity; Cultural Change.

Read: Eickelman, Chapter 8.

Read: Ilahiane, Hsain. 2001. The Social Mobility of the Haratine and the Re-working of Bourdieu’s Habitus on the Saharan Frontier , Morocco .  American Anthropologist 103 (2): 380-394 (On Reserve in Room 318 Curtiss Hall).

Week 8:  October 8-12: Ideologies of Gender and Ethnicity and The Daily Order of Cultural Practices

The Poetics of Language and the Arts; Social Obligations; Social Honor.

Read: Eickelman, Chapter 9.

Discussion of Veiled Sentiments.

Video: In My Father’s House

Weeks 9 & 10:  October 15-26: Islam and the “People of the Book.”
Interpretations of Islam and Judaism, state authority, religious minorities and movements, and Sufism.

Read: Eickelman, Chapter 10 and 11.

Video: Nusrat Ali Khan or the Sufi Voice of Pakistan .

Start reading Steet’s Veils and Daggers.

Week 11: October 29-November 2: Writing on and Representing Muslim/Arab societies

Discussion of Steet’s Veils and Daggers.

Start reading Said’s Covering Islam.

Week 12: November 5-9: Writing on and Covering Muslim Societies

Discussion of Said’s Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World.

Video: The New Cold War (Beyond the Veil)

Week 13: November 12-16: Information and Communication Technologies and “ Mobile ” Muslim Societies

Read: Eickelman and Anderson : Chapters 1, 3, and 4 (On Reserve in Room 318 Curtiss Hall).

Douglas and Douglas : "The mosque and the satellite": Media and Adolescence in a Moroccan town: http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/mosque.html

Video: Umm Kalthum or the Voice of Egypt

Presentation: The Bazaars of Information and Communication Technologies in the Madinas of Rabat and Casablanca , Morocco .

Recommended: http://www.georgetown.edu/research/arabtech/confer1.htm

Start reading Khalidi’s Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America 's Perilous Path in the Middle East .

Week 15: November 26-30: The Politics of Muslim Protest and Global Linkages
Read: The Many Faces of the Future, The Clash of Ignorance, ‘Why do they hate us?’, and Political Islam and Violence, Enemies Within, Enemies Without (On Reserve in Room 318 Curtiss Hall).

Christian Science Monitor Special Projects Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/world/index.html

Video: The Holy Warriors (Beyond the Veil)

Week 16: Dec. 3-7:  The Regional and Global Politics of the Middle East .

Discussion of Khalidi’s Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the MiddleEast.

Wrap-up and Course evaluation.

Week 17: December 10-14:  Final Exam on December 11.