Advanced Search Request a Book

ORDERS

Readings Orders 0

DEMANDS

Readings Demands 0

Culture and Conflict In the Middle East
[Hardback - 2008]
philip carl salzman
In Stock
List Price: $34.99
Our Price: Rs.3475 Rs.3127
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.348
Category: History
Publisher: Humanity Books | ISBN: 9781591025870 | Pages: 224
Shipping Weight: 0 | Dimensions: null

Description

In an era of increasing interaction between the United States and the countries of the Middle East, it has become ever more important for Americans to understand the social forces that shape Middle Eastern cultures. Based on years of his own field research and the ethnographic reports of other scholars, anthropologist Philip Carl Salzman presents an incisive analysis of Middle Eastern culture that goes a long way toward explaining the gulf between Western and Middle Eastern cultural perspectives.

Salzman focuses on two basic principles of tribal organization that have become central principles of Middle Eastern life balanced opposition (each group of whatever size and scope is opposed by a group of equal size and scope) and affiliation solidarity (always support those closer against those more distant). On the positive side, these pervasive structural principles support a decentralized social and political system based upon individual independence, autonomy, liberty, equality, and responsibility. But on the negative side, Salzman notes a pattern of contingent partisan loyalties, which results in an inbred orientation favoring particularism: an attitude of my tribe against the other tribe, my ethnic group against the different ethnic group, my religious community against another religious community. For each affiliation, there is always an enemy.

Salzman argues that the particularism of Middle Eastern culture precludes universalism, rule of law, and constitutionalism, which all involve the measuring of actions against general criteria, irrespective of the affiliation of the particular actors. The result of this relentless partisan framework of thought has been the apparently unending conflict, both internal and external, that characterizes the modern Middle East.

About the Author

Philip Carl Salzman (Montreal, Canada) is professor of anthropology at McGill University; the founding chair of the Commission on Nomadic Peoples of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences; the founding editor of Nomadic Peoples; and the author of Black Tents of Baluchistan; Pastoralism: Equality, Hierarchy, and the State; Thinking Anthropologically; and Understanding Culture.

Bestsellers in History

View All
Islam: A Short History
[Paperback - 2002]
karen armstrong
In Stock
List Price: £9.99
Our Price: Rs.2145 Rs.1930
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.215
The Campaigns Of Alexander
[Paperback - 1971]
arrian
Out of Stock
Availability in 2-4 weeks on receipt of order
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: Rs.2345 Rs.2110
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.235
White Mughals: Love & Betrayal In Eighteenth Century India
[Paperback - 2004]
william dalrymple
In Stock
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: Rs.3795 Rs.3415
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.380
Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind
[Paperback - 2015]
yuval noah harari
In Stock
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: Rs.2995 Rs.2695
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.300
The Histories (Translation)
[Paperback - 2003]
herodotus
Out of Stock
Availability in 4-6 weeks on receipt of order
List Price: $14
Our Price: Rs.2995 Rs.2695
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.300
21 Lessons For The 21st Century
[Paperback - 2019]
yuval noah harari
In Stock
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: Rs.2895 Rs.2605
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.290
World Order: Reflections On The Character Of Nations And The Course Of History
[Paperback - 2015]
henry kissinger
In Stock
List Price: £10.99
Our Price: Rs.2495 Rs.2245
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.250
The Earth Transformed: An Untold History
[Paperback - 2023]
peter frankopan
In Stock
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: Rs.4795 Rs.4315
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.480
The Earth Transformed: An Untold History
[Hardback - 2023]
peter frankopan
On Demand
Availability in 2-4 weeks on receipt of order
List Price: £30
Our Price: Rs.7145 Rs.6073
Standard Discount: 15%
You Save: Rs.1072
Inglorious Empire: What The British Did To India
[Paperback - 2017]
shashi tharoor
In Stock
List Price: £10.99
Our Price: Rs.2595 Rs.2335
Standard Discount: 10%
You Save: Rs.260