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A New Definition of Jordanian Identity, November 30, 2001
This review is from: Colonial Effects (Paperback)
In his book "Colonial Effects", Mr. Massad analyzes how Jordan's identity has evolved since the colonial time. He emphasizes how this was achieved mainly by the means of two institutions: the law and the military. Considering that it was to take place in a newly formed country constituted of a very diverse population, this was quite a challenge. Colonial Effects was written as a dissertation, which makes it very structured and scholarly.
Chapter one, "Codifying the Nation: Law and the Articulation of National Identity in Jordan", makes a review of how the Jordanian law came to exist, first during the Ottoman empire, already influenced by the Western world, and then by the British mandate. Jordan, according to Massad, would not have been possible before the era of the Nation-state, as the population was very diverse and divided. But the creation of this state predates the establishment of a Jordanian identity, since the enactment of Nationality Law didn't occur until 1928. The territory of Jordan, on the other side, has always been more malleable, since it has expanded and contracted, and a British concept of private ownership was put in force during the mandate, which territorialized the reorganization of national identity. Like British national law, Jordanian nationality was defined by ones paternity, which stayed mostly unchanged, or in certain cases by naturalization. Women's and children's nationality was until fairly recently dependent on their husbands and fathers nationality.
In "Different Spaces as Different Times: Law and Geography in Jordanian Nationalism", Massad explains the different application of the law to urban males, women, and Bedouins. In Jordan, there is a distinction between the civil code, the personal status law, and the tribal law. Women weren't allowed to vote until the sixties, although they were regarded as equal to men on several other levels. A strong organization of women partly through societies and clubs, was able to offer a number of rights in society. The tribal law applied to Bedouins, who in the twenties represented close to half of the Jordanian population. The Bedouin population was closely supervised by the Arab Legion and partly forced to sedentarize until the mid seventies, at which point they finally gained access to Jordanian voting rights, but the tribal law was abolished, which brought about quite some resentment. Jordan has used the Bedouin culture as a means to attract interest from abroad and develop its tourism and economy. Jordan is faced with the problem of its dualities: modern-traditional, nomadic-settled.
Chapter three is entitled "Cultural Syncretism or Colonial Mimic Men: Jordan's Bedouins and the Military Basis of National Identity". The Jordanian army, the Arab Legion tried to avoid discrimination of nationality or tribe. Glubb had a special interest in the Arab population, but also showed was of evolutionary and modernizationist thinking, although supporting local dictatorial rule as more "traditional". He had a strong antipathy to juridical rule, which undermined his authority over the Bedouin. On the other side, he took a great interest in shaping the Arab Legion into a more European appearance, both exterior and culturally, and comes to identify with Bedouin Arabs as the basis for Jordanianness. During Glubb's time, the society in Jordan changed a lot. Although caring for the Bedouin tribes, his job was to sedentarize them, and to do so, he helped totally redefine the Bedouin culture and way of life.
In "Nationalizing the Military: Colonial Legacy as National Heritage", we see how already during the British Mandate, anti-colonialism began to grow within the army. Abdullah al-Tall would have anti-British speeches and soon was considered a threat to the regime, but he eventually vanished from the political sphere of the anti-colonial opposition. When Husayn acceded to the throne, he was still undergoing great British influence, but already showed an interest in eventually doing without the British, and befriended Ali Abu-Nuwwar. This was a time when unrest grew, and the Free Officers gained a more important place regarding nationalism. The army was widely enlarged, and a request was made for the Arabization of the army. Finally, in 1956, the British and Glubb are dismissed. The new nationalist leadership saw the army as an instrument of national unification. But the King chose to turn towards the United States with the acceptation of the Doctrine. A coup was organized against the King, but was dismantled and had the result of reinforcing the existing government.
Chapter five, "The Nation as an Elastic Entity: The Expansion and Contraction of Jordan", presents the effect that demographic and geographic expansion and contraction had on the Jordanian identity and culture. The Jericho Conference and the annexation of the West Bank called for a certain "Palestinian-Jordanian unity". With this territory, came a large number of Palestinians who were offered Jordanian identity, which only partially and half-heartedly accepted. A further displacement occurred after the 1948 loss of this territory to Israel, when a number of West Bank inhabitants resettled on the East Bank of Jordan. The PLO and other Palestinian related guerrilla activities who had their seat in Jordan came to be viewed as a growing threat to the government and were finally ousted in 1970 to avoid the spreading of a civil war. A Jordanian accent, new clothing, or football, also became symbols of the new Jordanienness. Finally, this Jordanienness is inclusive, many being also Palestinian, Bedouin, etc.
In conclusion, I would say that in "Colonial Effects", Massad is able to show that the modern institutions of power of Jordan ,namely the law and the military, have indeed shaped the national identity of the Jordanian population. Not merely repressing this population, but also producing something of greater importance: a sense of belonging to a particular nation, that is the Kingdom of Jordan. First imposed on the country under the British rule, those institutions have been progressively integrated into the "tradition" of a Jordanian past to eventually become the essence of Jordanienness.
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