Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-262) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Chapter 1: Intimate bodies, violent struggles -- Chapter 2: Emplacing research: History, anthropology and methods -- Chapter 3: Two houses in Jaramana: History and diversity in a Druze neighbourhood -- Chapter 4: Of bodies, souls and transformations: Birthing and dying in Jaramana -- Chapter 5: A wedding in Jaramana: Nuptial intimacy, power and performance -- Chapter 6: Cultural policy marriages: Folklore festivals, legitimacy and the Syrian state -- Chapter 7: Arab youth politics in Syria: Becoming young in the Middle East -- Chapter 8: An Arab dance last spring: Middle-class intellectuals, art and marriage in Damascus -- Chapter 9: The intimate and violent struggles ahead.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
"The Syrian state's rhetoric of Arab nationalism left little room for the official recognition of minority identities in pre-war Syria. Yet in practice, the state continually engaged with the Druze and other minorities to reinforce its legitimacy, often through cultural policy. Uncovering this neglected aspect of pre-war Syrian politics, Kastrinou explores the cultural politics of marriage in Syria, primarily among the Druze, to reveal how practical rituals of marriage inform sectarian and national identity formation. Challenging the assumed inherence of sectarianism and Druze endogamy, the book provides an historical and ethnographic account of political power and its relation to social control in Syria. It demonstrates the centrality of the body to Druze cosmology and how ritual performances of birth, marriage and death maintain and negotiate sectarian cohesion. Connecting these struggles to national and international politics, Kastrinou examines how both the Syrian government and the European Union have sponsored marriage-themed dance performances in Syria, each leveraging its cultural importance to legitimise their own policy goals. The book establishes marriage as a pervasive idiom for the construction of collective identity in Syria, which is appropriated by individuals, sects, states and intergovernmental organizations alike. Its conclusions are relevant to scholars of Middle East studies, sectarianism, anthropology and politics."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
ACQUISITION INFORMATION NOTE
Source for Acquisition/Subscription Address
Proquest Ebook Central
Stock Number
4571795
COVER TITLE
Cover Title
Power, sect & state in Syria
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Druzes-- Syria.
Marriage-- Political aspects-- Syria.
Marriage-- Social aspects-- Syria.
Druzes.
Marriage-- Social aspects.
POLITICAL SCIENCE-- Public Policy-- Cultural Policy.