Feminism and modernity in the middle east princeton. Abulughod contributed by showing the awkward relationship between anthropology and feminism. To ease these tensions, abulughod feels that anthropologists must adapt the technique of writing against culture, not as culture or in culture, because culture is defined by its current participants. Bedouin stories abulughod 1993, that your father, ibrahim abulughod, the palestinian scholar and activist, had been something of a door opener. It seems to me from your description that abulughod is acknowledging that the concept of culture has played an important role in combatting racism and other forms of discrimination based on the notion that differences are inbred. At the muslimah media watch blog, read the story of one muslim womans intellectual and emotional appreciation for abulughods efforts to save muslim women from being saved. Anthropological reflections on cultural relativism and its others abstract this article explores the ethics of the current war on terrorism, asking whether anthropology, the. It seems to me from your description that abu lughod is acknowledging that the concept of culture has played an important role in combatting racism and other forms of discrimination based on the notion that differences are inbred. But abulughods analysis also reveals how deeply implicated poetry and sentiment are in the play of power and the maintenance of social hierarchy. Lila abulughod on attitudes toward muslim women in the. Abu lughod is simply encouraging readers to see the larger picture and, to some. For this reason, it would behoove anthropologists to focus on the analysis of specific people rather than certain societies as wholes.
Lila abulughod was born to palestinian academic ibrahim abulughod and american sociologist janet abulughod in 1952. Lila abulughods first publication, veiled sentiments, was about the politics of sentiment and cultural expression in a bedouin community in egypt that made an argument about the complexity of culture2. She is a former director of the institute for research on women and gender, the center for the study of social difference, and the middle east institute, all at columbia. Abu lughod is the author of a new book called do muslim women need saving. She witnessed striking changes, both cultural and economic, and she recorded the stories of the women. Readings for writing womens worlds by lila abulughod. Jose limon also writes against previous anthropologists who studied the same field from a. Abu lughod and others published writing against culture find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. You wrote that your initial presence in this awlad ali community as an unmarried woman was premised on your. As abulughod writes, gendered orientalism has taken on a new life and new forms in our feminist twenty first century. Most troubling for me was why the muslim or afghan woman was so crucial to this cultural mode of explanation that ignored.
Projects of saving other women depend on and reinforce a sense of superiority, and are a form of arrogance that deserves to be challenged 47. Lila abulughod center for the study of social difference. Lila abu lughod agrees that it is time to take textuality seriously and considers strategies for writing against culture that aims at suppressing the very concept of culture from the social science literature. The books chapters take up the challenge on a number of terrains. Lila abu lughod was born to palestinian academic ibrahim abu lughod and american sociologist janet abu lughod in 1952. Known for a method she calls writing against culture, which allows her to avoid generalisations and highlight the individuality of womens experiences, abulughod compellingly applies this approach in order to show the futility of blaming culture for the oppression of muslim women. She is is an american with palestinian and jewish ancestry who is professor of anthropology and womens and gender studies at columbia university in new york city. Jose limon also writes against previous anthropologists who studied the same field from a different perspective. Abulughod is persistent in writing against culture and against anthropologys tendency to typify cultures through social scienti.
Lila abulughod is a professor at columbia university and the author of the new book, do muslim women need saving the views expressed are solely her own. University of california press, 1986 file history click on a datetime to view the file as it appeared at that time. One gets a clear sense from this monograph and its sequel, writing womens worlds. Writing culture, the collection that marked a major. Some of the criticism against this book has said that abu lughod asks people to make complex conclusions that it has taken the author 30 years of field work to be able to make, but i think this is doing the key message of do muslim women need saving. Princeton university press, 1998, and veiled sentiments. Living in this egyptian bedouin settlement for extended periods during the following decade, abulughod took part in family life, with its moments of humor, affection, and anger. I did not mean to imply, in arguing for writing against culture, that all humans. At the washington post blog monkey cage, read an analysis of lila abulughods central premise as it relates to womens rights in jordan. Abulughods critique of this narrative is pointed and severe. Theory and methods abulughod, lila, 1991 writing against culture. Feminist debates grant reproduction a different but still key role, analyzing it variously as the root of womens vulnerability to male 25 for a discussion of stories of resistance and an.
The introduction was so promising, and there were admittedly several flashes of insights scattered throughout, but overall, do muslim women need saving. Lila abu lughod has worked on womens issues in the middle east for over twenty years. Does abulughod entirely reject the notion of culture. Nov 07, 20 known for a method she calls writing against culture, which allows her to avoid generalisations and highlight the individuality of womens experiences, abulughod compellingly applies this approach in order to show the futility of blaming culture for the oppression of muslim women. Nov 01, 20 lila abu lughod is a professor at columbia university and the author of the new book, do muslim women need saving the views expressed are solely her own. Abulughod and others published writing against culture find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. Lila abulughod 3 198990 aclsssrc near and middle east committee grant for advanced research project on islam and public culture in contemporary egypt 198889 mellon fellow in the humanities, university of pennsylvania 198788 member, the institute for advanced study, princeton. September 11 and ethnographic responsibility do muslim women really need saving. Analysis of lila abulughods do muslim women really need saving. Professor lila abu lughod s most recent work is the seminal book. Speaking about anthropological theory lila abulughod t he history of anthropological theory is a history of debate. Her second publication, writing womens worlds, used individual stories to make a larger argument about writing against. Feb 14, 2012 to ease these tensions, abu lughod feels that anthropologists must adapt the technique of writing against culture, not as culture or in culture, because culture is defined by its current participants. Writing culture clifford and marcus 1986, the collection that marked a major new form of critique of cultural.
Abulughod is the author of a new book called do muslim women need saving. Abulughods aim is not to render feminists helpless in responding to acts of violence against women but to bring about a more feminist response to the table that is, to initiate a more critical engagement with the essentialized culture muslim, brown that the agentless she is being saved from and with readymade. As a result, abulughod aims to deconstruct popular characterisations of muslim women through a process of writing against culture, by which she endeavours to bring forces and influences other than culture to the fore. Lila abu lughod 3 198990 aclsssrc near and middle east committee grant for advanced research project on islam and public culture in contemporary egypt 198889 mellon fellow in the humanities, university of pennsylvania 198788 member, the institute for advanced study, princeton. Locating ethnography lila abulughod, 2000 sage journals. Writing culture clifford and marcus, the collection that marked a major new form of critique of cultural.
Speaking about anthropological theory lila abu lughod t he history of anthropological theory is a history of debate. I will argue that culture operates in an collection that. Frequent reports of honor killings, disfigurement, and sensational abuse have given rise to a consensus in the west, a message propagated by human rights groups and the media. An anthropologist who has been writing about arab women for thirty years, she delves. If youre a member of a certain belief system and compare other cultures to your system then you are ethnocentric and thats a value judgment that we should avoid. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Fox gq\ schoolof american research pre55 s,nta fe, new mexico chapter i writing against culture lila abulughod worrt cultureclifford and marcus 1986, the collection that marked a major new form of critique of cultural anthropologys premises, more or less excluded two critical. Scribd is the worlds largest social reading and publishing site. She specializes in ethnographic research in the arab world, and her seven books cover topics including sentiment and poetry, nationalism. Lila abu lughod, in theory in social and cultural anthropology. Buttenweiser professor of social science in the department of anthropology at columbia university in new york city. Professor lila abulughods most recent work is the seminal book.
She specializes in ethnographic research in the arab world, and her seven books cover topics including sentiment and poetry, nationalism and media, gender politics and the politics of memory. Speaking about anthropological theory lila abulughod. In 1978 lila abulughod climbed out of a dusty van to meet members of a small awlad ali bedouin community. What has most fascinated me about the debates is that they reveal how our thinking develops both as a process of argument within a discipline that has its own terms, methods, and parameters, and as a process funda. She obtained her phd from harvard university in 1984. Lila abulughod, in theory in social and cultural anthropology. Abulughods stated aim is to articulate why prevailing western stereotypes about islam and about the arab world fail to capture the reality of muslim womens lives. In this mode, which abulughod terms writing against culture 6, she counters the western imaginary in which muslim women are continually subjected to sensationalistic crimes and therefore require western intervention and saving since they are perceived to be lacking in agency. Abulughod proposed three different strategies of writing against culture to counter ethnographic accounts of the time, which presented culture as something that is static, discrete, homogeneous and coherent, ignoring the crossover between societies, social and cultural change, subjectivity and everyday contradictions. Jan 23, 2016 some of the criticism against this book has said that abu lughod asks people to make complex conclusions that it has taken the author 30 years of field work to be able to make, but i think this is doing the key message of do muslim women need saving.
I did not mean to imply, in arguing for writing against culture, that all humans are the same. The author urges readers not to impose sweeping generalizations on all muslim women, and to not place blame on the religion of islam for womens mistreatment but rather to blame the cultural and sociopolitical climate of middleeastern countries. What begins as a puzzle about a single poetic genre becomes a reflection on the politics of sentiment and the complexity of culture. Pdf lila abulughod, in theory in social and cultural. Abulughod and others published writing against culture find, read and cite all the research you need on. It was published by columbia university press in april 2007. Lila abulughod on attitudes toward muslim women in the west. Lila abu lughod teaches anthropology and gender studies at columbia university.
Lila abulughod born 1952 is a palestinianamerican anthropologist. Dec 11, 2015 abulughod proposed three different strategies of writing against culture to counter ethnographic accounts of the time, which presented culture as something that is static, discrete, homogeneous and coherent, ignoring the crossover between societies, social and cultural change, subjectivity and everyday contradictions. Lila abulughod, writing against culture philpapers. Lila abu lughod born 1952 is a palestinianamerican anthropologist. Writing culture clifford and marcus 1986, the collection that marked a major new form. Nov 01, 20 written by an anthropologist, this book is extremely well articulated, well researched, and will make you question longheld assumptions. Lila abulughods book is a critical reflection on this mushrooming industry, and its representatives, representations and bureaucracy abulughod succeeds inexposing several stubbornly persistent myths. Analysis of lila abulughods do muslim women really. Pdf 43 writing against culture karine jurado academia. Recapturing anthropology worhing in the present edited by richard g. As abulughod writes, gendered orientalism has taken on a new life and new forms in our feminist twenty first century p. At the new york times blog artsbeat, watch a brief. Lila abulughod teaches anthropology and gender studies at columbia university. Lila abulughod has worked on womens issues in the middle east for over twenty years.
Abu lughod, a palestinian american anthropologist and author of veiled sentiments. It offers a detailed, moving portrait of the actual experiences of ordinary muslim women, and of the contingencies with which they live. Lila abulughod agrees that it is time to take textuality seriously and considers strategies for writing against culture that aims at suppressing the very concept of culture from the social science literature. Saving muslim women is now a global undertaking in which the participants are both muslim and nonmuslim. An informal introduction to ethnography, academic press 1980. Fox gq\ schoolof american research pre55 s,nta fe, new mexico chapter i writing against culture lila abu lughod worrt culture clifford and marcus 1986, the collection that marked a major new form of critique of cultural anthropologys premises, more or less excluded two critical groups whose. Abulughod evaluating other peoples and cultures according to the standards of ones own culture. University of california press, 1993, remaking women. Sadi, it focuses on palestinian memory and the experience of expulsion. What are the problems with ethnography in anthropology, according to abulughod.
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