PERCEPTIONS OF THE MIDDLE EASTPERCEPTIONS OF THE MIDDLE EAST351 Contemporary Politics of the Middle East – Spath (summer 2010)351 Contemporary Politics of the Middle East – Spath (summer 2010)

TODAY:TODAY:

1.1.Conceptual Discussion – What is the Middle East? Conceptual Discussion – What is the Middle East? (Nikki Keddie Reading)(Nikki Keddie Reading)

2.2.Orientalism – Lecture & Readings discussionOrientalism – Lecture & Readings discussion

3.3.Eric Davis reading – The Ethno-confessional model and Eric Davis reading – The Ethno-confessional model and Communal MindCommunal Mind

THE MIDDLE EAST – THE MIDDLE EAST – A CONCEPTUAL DISCUSSIONA CONCEPTUAL DISCUSSION

• Big Question – Is it appropriate to think of the Middle East as a comprehensive unit (a whole)?

• Review key distinctions– Arab world (ethno-nationalist)– Islamic/Muslim world (religious)– Middle East (geographic)

• “More variety than unity”• Historical justification• Geographic justification

• Question – which is most resonant to the people of the region?

Umayyad Caliphate

Abbasid Caliphate

Ottoman Empire

THE CASE OF IRAN (KEDDIE)THE CASE OF IRAN (KEDDIE)

• Should we include Iran?– ANSWER?

• It depends...

• Social, cultural, political synthesis

MIDDLE EASTERN EXCEPTIONALISMMIDDLE EASTERN EXCEPTIONALISM

• the notion that political and social dynamics in the Middle East are unique, and therefore unlike political and social forces in all other places in the world.

• QUESTION: What are some problems with this kind of exceptionalism?

• This exceptionalism is part of an Orientalist view of the region

ORIENTALISM (THE BASICS)ORIENTALISM (THE BASICS)

• Central Question: How do we come to understand strangers by virtue of their appearance and their ethnicity?

• Orientalism is:– A lens that distorts the actual reality of the places and

people of the “Orient”– A framework for understanding the foreignness of Arabs

and other “Easterners”

ORIENTALISM ORIENTALISM (CONT.)(CONT.)

• Beginning of the Orientalism Project – Napoleon’s Conquest of Egypt in 1798

• REPERTORY OF IMAGES– Sensual Woman for Man’s Use– Mysterious – Threatening

• Different Types• The point is not just that it exists.

– Consequences?

ETHNO-CONFESSIONAL MODEL ETHNO-CONFESSIONAL MODEL (DAVIS READING)(DAVIS READING)

• Ethnoconfessional Model – assumption that political loyalties are based on one’s ethnic or religious identity

– Mosaic Society - Emphasis on fragmentation

– Communal Mind – that members of a particular collective identity (ethnicity, religion, etc) think and behave in political lockstep• ‘The Arab Mind’ by Raphael Patai as an example

– Patai also wrote a book called ‘The Jewish Mind’

SHORT FILM – REEL BAD ARABSSHORT FILM – REEL BAD ARABS

THE ENDTHE END

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History of the Ottoman Empire