The Sovereignty of Kin: Political Discourse in Post‐Ta’if Lebanon

Abstract

The debate over sovereignty in Lebanon involves a battle among distinct and varying political imaginaries. This struggle is evident in the negotiation of the Syrian presence within Lebanon prior to the withdrawal of the Syrian military in the spring of 2005. I focus here on the early public call for change made by the Maronite Patriarch that preceded the broader national movement for Syrian withdrawal. I argue that this statement challenged previously entrenched concepts regarding the relationship between Syria and Lebanon and contributed to redefining Lebanese discourses of sovereignty. Specifically, I look at the metaphor of kin relations: aspects of a sibling relationship that embed Lebanon in a script of reciprocal obligations are contrasted with a more individuated notion of state rights. The rhetorical strategy of contrasting the rights and obligations of brotherhood relations through the use of marked terms of dependency and inequality became a means for revising the discussion of the political relationship between the two countries while still maintaining the trope of Arab brotherhood. [sovereignty; political discourse; kinship metaphor; Lebanon-Syria relations]Marwan begins to slow down as the peak of the military checkpoint appears on the horizon. The small wooden station is painted with the Lebanese flag, but is manned by Syrian soldiers, tired-looking young men in washed-out uniforms too big for their frames. Slowing down, he reaches for the radio, turning the music all the way down. Our easy conversation stops. He takes off his sunglasses and lowers his window as we near the soldiers with their AK-47 Kalashnikov rifles crooked in their arms. The soldier on the driver's side bends down to look into the car, making eye contact only briefly before waving us over the speed bumps and on our way. This disruption, which occurred twice along the road to Marwan's hometown of Zghorta (in Lebanon) from Beirut, was a strong reminder of the Syrian presence and the control that the Syrian government wielded in Lebanon during the duration of my early fieldwork (1999)(2000)(2001).

Returnees, Institutions, and Networks

“…By avoiding formalism, by avoiding industries that require clearly traced lines of added value defined contractually, the country's economy has been a pawn in the regional power struggles that resonate through sectarian patronage networks. Diane Riskedahl (2011) notes the tension between the metaphor of kinship versus the formal relations between states in the withdrawal of Syria from mandatory control of Lebanon in 2005: the challenges of shaping a formal and structured national context are not merely a matter of domestic political contest. The globe-spanning diaspora makes remittances to Lebanon, keeping it afloat while limiting national development; mid-career returnees were a deviation from this dynamic, returning as they did, providing expertise in person rather than cash from afar.…”

Anthropologies of Arab-Majority Societies

“…Initial writing on the Internet (spearheaded by Jon Anderson, Dale Eickelman, and Daniel Varisco) suggests that more research is needed to elucidate how it changes knowledge-power relations and shapes social activism and community-making. There are notably fewer works on language compared with other world regions (exceptions include Caton 1990, Goodman 2005, Haeri 2003, Hoffman 2008, Miller 2007, Peterson 2010, Riskedahl 2011, given that this is a disciplinary subfield. Although analyses of infertility have begun to incorporate insights from science and technology studies (STS) and Hamdy (2012) goes further to integrate STS, bioethics, and Islamic ethics, STS has yet to inform anthropology of the region adequately.…”