21A.453

Anthropology of the Middle East

Undergraduate · Historical course

Spring 2004

Topics

Introduction
Orientalism
Performance: The Egyptian Dancing Girl
Popular and Folk Culture
The Performance of Folktale: “The Story of Solomon and Sheba” – Christian, Muslim and Jewish texts
Performance and the Koran
Women and Poetic Performances
Wedding Song
Professional Entertainers: Solo Females
Professional Entertainers: Arab Oral Epic Performance
Islam in America: Parades and Mosques

Readings

Said, Edward. Orientalism . New York, NY: Pantheon, 1978. ISBN: 9780710000408.
Required
Abu-Lughod, Lila. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780520054837.
Required
Nieuwkerk, Karin Van. A Trade Like Any Other: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt . Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780292787209.
Required
Eickelman, Dale F. The Middle East and Central Asia: an Anthropological Approach . 3rd ed. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1997. ISBN: 9780131230194.
Required
Videotape: Algiers (1938) with Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr.
Required
Videotape: The Battle of Algiers (1967) plus handouts of film scenarios.
Required
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth . New York, NY: Grove Press, 1965, pp. 38-39. ISBN: 9780802150837. (Handout.)
Required
Said, Edward. Orientalism . New York, NY: Pantheon, 1978, part 1, pp. 1-110, and 166-197. ISBN: 9780710000408.
Required
———. “Orientalism Reconsidered.” Cultural Critique 1 (1986): 89-107.
Required
al-‘Azm, Sadiq Jalal. “Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse.” Khamsin 8 (1981): 5-27.
Required
Lane, Edward, and Gerard de Nerval. Description de l’Egypte . (Handouts.)
Required
Slyomovics, Susan. “Arabic Folk Literature and Political Expression.” Arab Studies Quarterly 8, no. 2 (1986): 178-85. ( PDF ) ↗
Required
———. “Arabic Traditions.” As originally published in Teaching Oral Traditions. Edited by John Miles Foley. New York, NY: The Modern Language Assocation, 1998, pp. 266-272. ISBN: 9780873523714. ( PDF ) ↗
Required
Videotape: The Power of the Word .
Required
Webber, Sabra. “On Canonicity, Literacy, and Middle Eastern Folk Narrative.” Edebiyat 4, no. 1 (1993): 35-48.
Required
Handouts: Targum Sheni on The Book of Esther and al-Kisa’i_, Stories of the Prophets_.
Required
de Nerval, Gerard. “The Tale of the Queen of the Morning.” In Journey to the Orient. London, UK: Peter Owen Ltd, 1972, pp. 123-213. ISBN: 9780720600117.
Required
Nelson, Kristina. The Art of Koranic Chant . Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1986, pp. 1-51. ISBN: 9780292703674.
Required
Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock. Guests of the Sheikh: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village . New York, NY: Anchor, 1995, pp. 106-126. ISBN: 9780385014854. (Section on women’s kraya.)
Required
Joseph, Terri Brint. “Poetry as a Strategy of Power: The Case of the Riffian Berber Women.” Signs 5, no. 3 (1980): 418-434.
Required
Videotape: Slyomovics, Amanda Dargan. [ Wedding Song ] (1990). ↗
Required
Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock, and Bassima Qattan Bezirgan, ed. “The Umm Kulthum Nobody Knows.” In Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak . Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1977, pp. 134-165. ISBN: 9780292750333.
Required
Slyomovics, Susan. The Merchant of Art: An Oral Epic Egyptian Poet in Performance. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988, pp. 1-35, and 264-268. ISBN: 9780520097377.
Required
Videotape: Slyomovics. [ The Merchant of Art ] (1986). ↗
Required
———. “Approaches to Transcription and Translation of Arab Oral Epics.” (Unpublished English translation of “Methodes de transcription et traduction d’une performance de geste orale arabe.” In Le Conte (1987): 127-139. Edited by Pierre Lyon and Paul Perron. Montreal, Canada: Didier.) ( PDF ) ↗
Required
———. “Asig Ra’bad: The Passion of Ma’bad.” Oriente Moderno , XXI n.s. (LXXXII), no. 3 (2002). Edited by Claudio lo Jacono of Istituto per l’Oriente C.A. Nallino of Roma (Italy). ( PDF ) ↗
Required
Aswad, Barbara. “Arab Americans: Those Who Followed Columbus.” Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 27 (July 1993): 5-22.
Required
Slyomovics, Susan. “New York City’s Muslim World Day Parade.” In Nation and Migration: The Politics of Space in the South Asian Diaspora. Edited by Peter Van Der Veer. Philadephia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995, pp. 157-177. ISBN: 9780812215373. ( PDF ) ↗
Required
Slyomovics. The Muslim World Day Parade and ‘Storefront’ Mosques of New York City." In Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe . Edited by Barbara Daly Metcalf. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996, pp. 204-216. ISBN: 9780520204034. The Regents of the University of California. ↗
Required
———. “Comparing Mosques to New York City’s Ethnic and Social Clubs.” In NY Masjid: The Mosques of New York . Edited by Jerrilyn Dodds. New York, NY: Storefront for Art and Architecture, 1996, n.p. Catalogue essay with photographs for a museum exhibition, Nov. 30, 1996-Jan. 30, 1997 held at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, powerHouse Books; 1 edition (May 2002). ISBN: 9781576871355. ( PDF ) ↗
Required

Sources

Course catalogue ↗Historical OpenCourseWare
MIT OCW syllabus ↗
MIT OCW readings ↗
MIT OCW calendar ↗
Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.