Customary Strangers (eBook, PDF)

New Perspectives on Peripatetic Peoples in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia
Redaktion: Berland, Joseph C.; Rao, Aparna

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Social scientists have generally remained impervious to a major economic and cultural adaptation-namely, the peripatetic lifestyle-although this adaptation has been an integral part of developments within the socioeconomic and cultural networks that social scientists study. This lack of interest derives perhaps from the ambiguous integration of peripatetics into these networks as well as the often negatively charged constructs -Gypsies, outsiders, or marginal others-imposed on peripatetics by dominant cultures. As peddlers of the strange to borrow a phrase from Clifford Geertz, peripatetics are situated at the fringes of their host societies and many students of the social ecological and behavioral sciences still continue to overlook the roles of peripatetic peoples. This collection presents the latest in cross-cultural comparative research on the nature of peripatetic peoples. Contributors examine the place of peripatetic peoples in the everyday lives and diverse cognitive maps of client communities. Relying on Georg Simmel's construct of The Stranger, the contributors to this volume suggest that peripatetic peoples are simultaneously outsiders and insiders, but most important, they are entrepreneurial middlemen traders par excellence. All told, the essays provoke vital reassessments of the anthropological focus on the role and status of cultural brokers and go-betweens in political, economic, and social interactions.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 352
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. März 2004
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780313053085
• Artikelnr.: 72267308

Autorenporträt

JOSEPH C. BERLAND has lived and traveled with peripatetic communities in Southwest Asia for 25% years. He is the author of No Five Fingers Are Alike and is co-editor with Matt T. Salo of a special issue of the journal Nomadic Peoples devoted to peripatetic peoples. Formerly at Northwestern and Oxford Universities, he is now Adjunct Professor of Social Anthropology at Qaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He is retired from pedagogical activities and pursues full-time research. APARNA RAO is Professor at the Institute fur Volkerkunde, Universitat zu Koln, Germany.

Inhaltsangabe

List of Maps, figures, and tables Unveiling the Stranger: A New Look at
Peripatetic Peoples by Joseph C. Berland and Aparna Rao "Once upon a Time":
Reconciling the Stranger by Michael J. Casimir The Middle East Roving
Traders among the Bedouin of South Sinai by Emanuel Marx Biography and
Identity in Damascus: A Syrian Nawar Chief by Frank Meyer Africa
Affiliations of the Stomach: Smith as "Stranger" among the Tuareg by Susan
Rasmussen "They work to eat and they eat to work": M'allemin Blacksmiths
and Theoretical Considerations of Classification and Discourse among the
Bidan Nobility of Mauritania by Mariella Villasante Cervello Strangers in
Their Wwn Land by Michael de Jongh Noble Strangers: The Nile Valley Gypsies
in the Ethnic Mosaic of Sudan by Bernhard Streck Singing Smiths and Hunting
Ritual Entrepreneurs: Transitions between Forager and Peripatetic
Communities in Africa by Michael Bollig They Travel Together and Fight a
Lot by Joseph Berland Professional Strangers in Urban Pakistan: A Note on
Peripatetic Specialists by Jurgen Wasim Frembgen Strangers and Liminal
Beings: Some Thoughts on Peripatetics, Insiders, and Outsiders in Southwest
Asia by Aparna Rao Enduring Strangers: Mughat, Lyuli, and other
Peripatetics in the Social Fabric of Central Asia by Shirin Akiner The
Orange Suku Laut: Owners of or Strangers in the Riau Archipelago of
Indonesia? by Cynthia Chou Notes on Contributors Index