eBook

Home and Homeland

Linda L. Layne

1994

Overview

In this provocative examination of collective identity in Jordan, Linda Layne challenges long-held Western assumptions that Arabs belong to easily recognizable corporate social groups. Who is a \"true\" Jordanian? Who is a \"true\" Bedouin? These questions, according to Layne, are examples of a kind of pigeonholing that has distorted the reality of Jordanian national politics. In developing an alternate approach, she shows that the fluid social identities of Jordan emerge from an ongoing dialogue among tribespeople, members of the intelligentsia, Hashemite rulers, and Western social scientists. Many commentators on social identity in the Middle East limit their studies to the village level, but Layne's goal is to discover how the identity-building processes of the locality and of the nation condition each other. She finds that the tribes create their own cultural \"homes\" through a dialogue with official nationalist rhetoric and Jordanian urbanites, while King Hussein, in turn, maintains the idea of the \"homeland\" in ways that are powerfully influenced by the tribespeople. The identities so formed resemble the shifting, irregular shapes of postmodernist land-scapes--but Hussein and the Jordanian people are also beginning to use a classically modernist linear narrative to describe themselves. Layne maintains, however, that even with this change Jordanian identities will remain resistant to all-or-nothing descriptions.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: 1948 Arab–Israeli War / A Girl Like Her / Adoption / Algerian Civil War / American Enterprise Institute / Amman / Arab Cooperation Council / Arab nationalism / Arab Revolt / Arabs / Ariel Sharon / Bahá'í Faith / Ballot box / Barracks / Bedouin / Bedouins / Bedouins -- Jordan -- Ethnic identity / Capitalism / Circassians / Citizens (Spanish political party) / Clifford Geertz / Eastern world / Ethnic identity / Family honor / Fawaz / French Colonial / Hashemites / HISTORY / HISTORY / Middle East / General / Household / Jordan / Jordan -- Social life and customs / Jordan Valley (Middle East) / Julian Jaynes / King of Syria / Majlis / Marshall Sahlins / Mattress / Middle East / Model village / Modernity / Mrs / National security / New Laws / Of Education / One Unit / Palestinian refugee camps / Palestinian refugees / Palestinians / Postmodernism / Prayer rug / Reasonable person / Refugee / Regency Council (Poland) / Residence / Saudi Arabia / Sedentism / Segmentary lineage / Slavery / Social life and customs / Sovereignty / Special Relationship / State formation / Suffrage / T. E. Lawrence / The Other Hand / Traditional society / Tribal Leadership / Tribal sovereignty in the United States / Tribalism / Tribe / United States / Voting / Wadi Rum / Widad Kawar / Zionism
• ISBN: 9780691094786, 0691094780, 1400820987, 9781400820986