Civil Society, Tribal Process, and Change in Jordan: An Anthropological View

Antoun, Richard T.

doi:10.1017/s0020743800021164

Cited by 49 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…[and] processes of a civil society form a seamless web with state processes rather than a sharp dichotomy with them. 14 Antoun's premise that tribal dispute resolution processes generate mutual trust diverges from legal anthropologists' observations elsewhere, which indicate that such settlements are designed to enable the feuding parties to continue living within the same community wherever possible, but need not rely on trust. 15 In a specifically Arab context, the primary objective of tribal settlements is commonly presented as restoring honor (sharaf) to the aggrieved party and preventing his/her kin from committing (otherwise inevitable) revenge attacks.…”

Section: R E V I S I T I N G T R I Ba L I S M T H Ro U G H T H E L E mentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeking Justice: Tribal Dispute Resolution and Societal Transformation in Jordan

Watkins¹

2014

Int. J. Middle East Stud.

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In Jordan, tribal dispute settlements have played a pivotal role in the management of various types of grievances between individuals since long before the establishment of the modern state. To varying degrees, Jordanians-from the East and West Banks, Muslim and Christian, urban and rural-cherish the kinship networks associated with these procedures, and the at . wa (truce) and s . ulh . (reconciliation) processes remain time-honored mechanisms for preventing revenge and making amends for wrongs committed. However, under the state's influence, the purpose of observing tribal settlements is evolving within an increasingly heterogeneous society. Drawing on documentary analysis combined with ethnographic material from across the kingdom, this article investigates the current status of tribal dispute resolution traditions among different sectors of the population. I argue that observance of such traditions can signify conformity with the hegemonic values that the state promotes as well as resistance to aspects of state control.jārak al-qarīb wa-lā ibn ammak al-ba īd (your neighbor who is close, rather than your cousin who is far away) A tribal shaykh in a crowded suburb of East Amman reminded me of this maxim last September. 1 I had questioned him about his responsibilities in the sphere of dispute resolution toward local residents other than those of his own clan, and more specifically toward those without any tribal networks. The shaykh, who had been introduced to me by the Jordanian Public Security Directorate (PSD), clearly sought to emphasize the civic dimensions of his role by stressing that kinship was not the defining feature of his office: his was a public service that extended even to non-Jordanians, and at times of crisis, a neighbor could be of far more value than a geographically distant relative. The maxim runs counter to tendencies toward cliquish tribalism, but in fact, many Jordanians today believe that tribalism ( ashā iriyya) is resurgent in various forms, that it shapes the nature of dispute management, and that government policies are largely accountable for it.The social composition of Jordanian communities has changed dramatically over the last half century. In 1960, when nearly half of Jordan's population still lived in rural areas, the rationale for observing tribal dispute resolution processes was more immediately apparent than it is today. 2

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Section: R E V I S I T I N G T R I Ba L I S M T H Ro U G H T H E L E mentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeking Justice: Tribal Dispute Resolution and Societal Transformation in Jordan

Watkins¹

2014

Int. J. Middle East Stud.

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“…Hospitality often involved dedicated spaces such as the madafa, or guesthouses. In Transjordan, the guesthouse was (and continues to be) an important space, specifically used to provide an arena for receiving guests, conducting business, and making political negotiations (e.g., AbuJaber 1989: 158-159;Antoun 2000;Bell 1907Bell , 1914Carroll 2004Carroll , 2005McQuitty 2004). The guesthouse can be a separate structure, used specifically for its intended purpose of extending hospitality.…”

Section: Parallel Landscapes Of Resistance: Caves and Guesthousesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building Farmsteads in the Desert: Capitalism, Colonialism, and the Transformation of Rural Landscapes in Late Ottoman Period Transjordan

Carroll

2011

Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology

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In the second half of the nineteenth century, merchant settlers from Palestine crossed the Jordan River and moved east into the Balqa' region of the Transjordan. Under a new Ottoman land tenure system, these settlers acquired land and invested in large-scale agricultural production, and constructed a series of large farmstead complexes, transforming the cultural and physical landscape of Transjordan's rural countryside. Many Bedu tribes that had previously used the landscape mainly for pastureland were drawn into this new economy as laborers, and their pastures were turned into large farms.While the development of large farmsteads in Transjordan and the Middle East is part of the process of capitalist expansion into the rural countryside, the intersection of capitalist investment with the empire's changing administrative policies were part of a new colonial discourse; during the nineteenth century, the Ottoman state attempted to redefine its relationship to nomadic groups and embraced the ideologies of colonialism in its efforts to settle its Bedu subjects and turn pastureland into agricultural spaces.Archaeological approaches to changing settlement in late Ottoman period Transjordan, however, move beyond a view that global structures were simply imposed on tribal groups. Instead, Bedu use of landscapes -both hidden and visiblehelped them negotiate their everyday lived conditions, by creating their own challenges to the structures of state, capitalism and colonialism.

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“…The relatively unstable position of the Hashemite Royal House within Jordan's elite structure and its dependence on foreign aid (cf. Antoun, 2000) serve as the study's pivotal points. The paper shows that water use patterns and distribution privileges serve to maintain the existing power-political and social order.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the political sideline? The institutional isolation of donor organizations in Jordanian hydropolitics

Bonn

2013

Water Policy

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Fresh water availability is very low in Jordan. Current water usage is unsustainable and structures of water resource governance are inadequate. Drawing on expert interviews and the analysis of media texts, this study shows that patterns and privileges of water consumption sustain specific political and social orders, aggravating Jordan's suboptimal water resource deployment. Many of these long-established modes of water distribution are not commensurate with new resource governance structures fostered by international development cooperation. This puts pressure on Jordan's political elite: the flow of foreign aid stabilizes the regime as does the preservation of existing privileges. It is argued here that maintaining two opposed but coexisting 'resource realities', i.e. governance structures and usage patterns of water resources, allows the regime to escape this dilemma. Donor organizations are thus bound to operate in an institutionally isolated sphere in Jordan with only a marginal ability to penetrate the relevant actor groups to trigger profound effects on either resource reality.

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Civil Society, Tribal Process, and Change in Jordan: An Anthropological View

Cited by 49 publications

References 0 publications

Seeking Justice: Tribal Dispute Resolution and Societal Transformation in Jordan

Seeking Justice: Tribal Dispute Resolution and Societal Transformation in Jordan

Building Farmsteads in the Desert: Capitalism, Colonialism, and the Transformation of Rural Landscapes in Late Ottoman Period Transjordan

On the political sideline? The institutional isolation of donor organizations in Jordanian hydropolitics

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