Anthropology of the Middle East

A culture can be expressed in a succinct way in its rituals, the manifestations of the culmination of its deepest beliefs. Rituals are also attempts to maintain cohesion, which they do most successfully in the material and non-material arts. Knowledge of a culture is necessary in order to portray the totality of that culture through its rituals and ceremonies. As a central topic in anthropology, ritual has been regarded as a phenomenon that is resistant to change and bound to a great extent to certain norms and regulations. Yet it is obvious that rituals are not rigid, unvarying sets of performances and that they have undergone many changes in definitions, functions and interpretations. Indeed, all aspects of culture, including rituals, are subject to change. Drawing on the past, cultures sustain their beliefs by making use of what is at hand in the present.

This article presents various mourning rituals and death rites as they are practised in Palestine. It focuses on differences in the mourning experience among fellahin and Bedouin Arabs but also shows certain parallels in their mourning and grieving customs. The article provides information on the prescribed set of rituals that Palestinians perform, beginning with how the body is treated and the way that it is prepared for burial. Combinations of mourning practices, which vary from rending one's garments to throwing earth on one's head, provide socially sanctioned expressions of grief and sorrow. Mourning practices differ between women and men: the former lament loudly and scratch their faces, while among the latter tears are neither encouraged nor welcomed. Parallels can be seen in these rituals with mourning for Palestine.

Zâr denotes a class of spirits, the illness that they cause when descending upon a person and the ritual that is necessary to pacify the spirits and secure the alleviation of the patient's symptoms. The ritual involves holding a ceremony where incense, music and movement play a role in appeasing the Zâr to provide relief for the patient. This article, based on field studies carried out in 2007-2009, provides a current account of Zâr practices in Bandar Abbâs and Qeshm Island in Iran.

Among religious Jews, hair is described as an application of religious law. This article proposes to study the place of hair in Jewish life, based on texts and social expressions. Hair appears to be linked to every important and ritual moment of life, symbolising the movement from one social status to another as a rite of passage. However, based on age and sex, and also on an analysis of different religious tendencies, hair reveals itself as more relevant in terms of social than religious use.

Human beliefs in resurrection and life after death, based on lasting exchanges between earth and heaven that prevail in human societies ubiquitously, are presented here and analysed with regard to the customs and rituals of the Negev Bedouin. The article looks at patterns of the mourning process and the different social functions and outcomes of that process. The influence of mystics and the Bedouin's views on death are discussed. Pre-Islamic burial practices and grave visits that reflect both legend and tradition are shown to be on the verge of change as they collide with proper Islam and modernity.

It is the marriage records - from 1920 and later - of modest, working-class people living ordinary lives in Ispahan, Iran, that form the basis of this study. Not one of the various transactions engaged by (and for) marriage is properly intelligible within a social context if considered outside of the family. Nor are insights into matrimonial practices possible without a proper assessment of the hierarchy of events surrounding the marriage and the social processes and domestic groups concerned. For this reason we are led to place a certain number of marriages within the social and historical contexts that produced them from 1920 to 2008.

PUBLICATIONS

Jacquesson, Svetlana (2010), Pastoréalismes: Anthropologie historique des processus d’intégration chez les Kirghiz du Tian Shan intérieur (Wiesbaden: Reichert/ « Nomaden und Sesshafte », Band 14). xii + 281 pp., bibliography, index. ISBN 978-3895007699.

Newcomb, Rachel (2009), Women of Fes: Ambiguities of Urban Life in Morocco (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press). 234 pp., bibliography, index. ISBN 978-0812241242.

FILMS

Abul, Shaker (2011), The Winds Are Fair, Same as Our Intention, 22 minutes.

Saadi, Shilan (2011), An Alley Behind Our House, 12 minutes.

CONFERENCES

Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) Conference, 4–8 January 2012, Hyderabad, India

International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS) Conference, 1–5 August 2012, Istanbul, Turkey