The Arab world : society, culture, and state

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Bibliographic Information

The Arab world : society, culture, and state

Halim Barakat

Univeristy of California Press, c1993

  • : pbk

Available at  / 23 libraries

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Note

Bibliography: p. 317-325

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

ISBN 9780520079076

Description

This wide-ranging examination of Arab society and culture offers a unique opportunity to know the Arab world from an Arab point of view. Halim Barakat, an expatriate Syrian who is both a scholar and a novelist, emphasizes the dynamic changes and diverse patterns that have characterized the Middle East since the mid-19th century. His is a picture that differs dramatically from the static one portrayed by much of Western scholarship. Barakat maintains that the unequal power relationships between Western imperial forces and Arabs have strongly influenced Western writing, thereby limiting our understanding of what it means to be Arab. The Arab world is not one shaped by Islam, or one simply explained by reference to the sectarian conflicts of a "mosaic" society. Instead, Barakat reveals a society that is highly complex, with many and various contending polarities. It is a society in a state of becoming and change, one whose social contradictions are at the root of the struggle to transcend dehumanizing conditions.
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780520084278

Description

This wide-ranging examination of Arab society and culture offers a unique opportunity to know the Arab world from an Arab point of view. Halim Barakat, an expatriate Syrian who is both scholar and novelist, emphasizes the dynamic changes and diverse patterns that have characterized the Middle East since the mid-nineteenth century. The Arab world is not one shaped by Islam, nor one simply explained by reference to the sectarian conflicts of a "mosaic" society. Instead, Barakat reveals a society that is highly complex, with many and various contending polarities. It is a society in a state of becoming and change, one whose social contradictions are at the root of the struggle to transcend dehumanizing conditions. Arguing from a perspective that is both radical and critical, Barakat is committed to the improvement of human conditions in the Arab world.

Table of Contents

Preface PART ONE: ARAB IDENTITY AND ISSUES OF DIVERSITY AND INTEGRATION: OUT OF MANY, ONE 1. Social and Political Integration: Alternative Visions of the Future Historical Context Conclusion 2. Arab Society: Basic Characteristic Features A Critical Approach: Some Methodological Observations Some Characteristic Features: Arab Society Basics: The Physical Setting, Demography, and Ecology Conclusion 3. Arab Identity: E pluribus unum The Arab Sense: Belonging Shared Culture and Its Variations The Place of Arabs in History and Their Common Experiences Shared Economic Interests External Challenges and Political Unity Conclusion 4. The Continuity of Old Cleavages: Tribe, Village, City The Bedouin Way: Life The Peasantry and the Village The City: Urbanization: Society Nature: The Relationships between Tribe, Village, and City Conclusion PART TWO: SOCIAL STRUCTURES AND INSTITUTIONS: OUT OF ONE, MANY 5. Social Classes: Beyond the Mosaic Model The Emerging Arab Economic Order Bases of Class Distinction and Formation Basic Classes in Contemporary Arab Society Class Relations: Class Consciousness and Class Struggle Conclusion 6. The Arab Family and the Challenge of Change The Basic Characteristics of the Arab Family Marriage and Divorce Patterns The Family and Society Conclusion 7. Religion in Society The Sociology of Islam The Social Origins of Religion Religion and Sect Official versus Folk or Popular Religion Religions as Mechanisms of Control, Instigation, and Reconciliation The Interrelationship between Religion and Other Social Institutions Religion and the State--Secularism versus Theocracy Alienation from and in Religion Religion and Change: Transformation or Conformity? Conclusion 8. Arab Politics: Its Social Context The Starting Point of Analysis The Politics of the Traditional Urban Big Bourgeoisie The Politics of the Intermediate National Bourgeoisie: Western Liberalism, Nationalism, Arab Socialism, and Religious Fundamentalism The Working Classes and the Left The Authoritarian Nature of the Arab Systems Conclusion: The Crisis of Civil Society PART THREE: THE DYNAMICS OF ARAB CULTURE 9. National Character and Value Orientations The Question of National Character Arab Value Orientations Conclusion 10. Creative Expression: Society and Literary Orientations Orientations in Arabic Literature Novels of Reconciliation Novels of Exposure Novels of Revolutionary Change Conclusion 11. Arab Thought: Problems of Renewal, Modernity, and Transformation Arab Thought in the Formative Period (1850-1914) Arab Thought and the Struggle for National Independence (1918-1945) Independence and Postindependence, 1945-1992: Researching the Roots of Disaster Conclusion PART FOUR: THE CRISIS OF CIVIL SOCIETY APPROACHING THE HORIZON OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 12. Conclusion Visions for the Future Notes Glossary Select Bibliography Index

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