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“Bedouin” and “Shawaya”: The Performative Constitution of Tribal Identities in Syria during the French Mandate and Today

“Bedouin” and “Shawaya”: The Performative Constitution of Tribal Identities in Syria during the... Drawing on archival research, ethnographic fieldwork in Syria in the 2000s, and texts published in print and on the Internet, this article investigates how social and collective identities in Syria’s tribal milieu have been negotiated through interactions between different social actors during the period of the French Mandate (1920-46) and the decade 2001-11. By scrutinizing administrative distinctions between “nomadic” and “semi-sedentary tribes”, or “Bedouin” and “Shawaya”, adopted during the Mandate, the article explores how notions of social order, which were partly informed by stereotypical imaginations of the Bedouin, have shaped local politics and influenced social dynamics in northern Syria. The article also traces how the experiences of the Mandate years resonate in articulations of social and political identity in Syria around the beginning of the twenty-first century. Taking inspiration from Judith Butler’s exposition of the performative constitution of gender identities, it is suggested that the constitution of tribal identities in Syria, too, can productively be regarded as a performative process. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient Brill

“Bedouin” and “Shawaya”: The Performative Constitution of Tribal Identities in Syria during the French Mandate and Today

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References (20)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0022-4995
eISSN
1568-5209
DOI
10.1163/15685209-12341370
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Drawing on archival research, ethnographic fieldwork in Syria in the 2000s, and texts published in print and on the Internet, this article investigates how social and collective identities in Syria’s tribal milieu have been negotiated through interactions between different social actors during the period of the French Mandate (1920-46) and the decade 2001-11. By scrutinizing administrative distinctions between “nomadic” and “semi-sedentary tribes”, or “Bedouin” and “Shawaya”, adopted during the Mandate, the article explores how notions of social order, which were partly informed by stereotypical imaginations of the Bedouin, have shaped local politics and influenced social dynamics in northern Syria. The article also traces how the experiences of the Mandate years resonate in articulations of social and political identity in Syria around the beginning of the twenty-first century. Taking inspiration from Judith Butler’s exposition of the performative constitution of gender identities, it is suggested that the constitution of tribal identities in Syria, too, can productively be regarded as a performative process.

Journal

Journal of the Economic and Social History of the OrientBrill

Published: Apr 10, 2015

Keywords: Syria; Bedouin; Shawaya; tribes; Mandate period; colonialism; performativity; local historiography

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