Cosmopolitan Desire: Transcultural Dialogues and Antiterrorism in Morocco (Alterations) [Paperback]

Stephen William Foster (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0759110247 | ISBN-13: 978-0759110243 | Publication Date: September 21, 2006

Foster's timely work looks at globalization processes and the transformations that occur within a diverse society. He investigates the multicultural blend of Western and Moslem cultures in Morocco, showing how a multicultural society deals with differences, e.g., how urban secularized Moslems constitute their identities, and how they present themselves to non-Moslem Westerners. Foster's work is about close encounters-he captures the dialogues between individuals and their resistance to intolerance. He offers a combination of narrative & life history, timely investigation of the intercultural problems facing Westerners & Moslims, and a consideration of the broader psychological and political forces at work in a multicultural society. His ethnography is a rich resource for anthropologists and African studies researchers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book is wonderful, and anyone interested in the shock of modernity in the Arab world should read it. Foster's haunting explorations of the hearts and minds of his Moroccan friends is both a portrait of a country and a loving collaboration in its negotiations with a changing world. He combines a storyteller's gift, an anthropologist's intellectual rigor, and a compassionate fascination with desire, confusion, and despair that has only deepened in the course of a remarkable second career in psychiatric nursing. (Jane Kramer )

This is a beautiful book about how individuals respond to globalization processes. It is also a valuable contribution to the literature on Morocco....By focusing on close encounters and the experiences of a few individual Moroccans, Foster reminds us about the complexities of human life and also introduces us to 'Moroccos' that do not usually come to the forefront. (Miriam Latif Sandbak Journal Of Peace Research, Vol. 44, No. 5, September 2007 )

Its extensive scholarly commentary and anecdotal approach reflect its author's training as an anthropologist. Foster has done a masterful job of illustrating, through anecdotes, the processes and effects of modernization, at least as they affect Tangiers and such principal Moroccan cities. Foster successfully blends his scholarly and personal itineraries, carrying them forward to a satisfying destination. (Leland Barrows H-Net )

Stephen Foster invites us to ponder the practice of ethical cosmopolitanism. In a riveting account of his many travels in Morocco—and commentary on his extensive interviews with Moroccans at home and abroad—Foster provides nuanced reflections both on the desire for worldliness and on the ways worldliness brings forth new structures and meanings of desire. The result is absolutely compelling, shedding new light on the transnational tumble of culture and identity, ethics and politics. (Greg Mullins )

About the Author

Stephen William Foster has taught anthropology at Smith College and the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Past is Another Country. He is an independent scholar and a nursing administrator at San Francisco General Hospital.

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: Altamira Press (September 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759110247
• ISBN-13: 978-0759110243
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,113,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing cross-cultural perspective., August 6, 2007

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cosmopolitan Desire: Transcultural Dialogues and Antiterrorism in Morocco (Alterations) (Paperback)

Written by anthropology instructor Stephen William Foster, Cosmopolitan Desire: Transcultural Dialogues and Antiterrorism in Morocco is a timely close-up look at the interaction of Western and Muslim cultures among the people of Morocco, as fueled by the modern era of globalization. Drawn from the author's many travels to Morocco, and numerous interviews with Moroccans home and abroad, Cosmopolitan Desire examines how urban, secularized Muslims form their identities, how they present themselves to non-Muslim Westerners, modern intercultural problems set amid the backdrop of history, broad psychological and political forces affecting Morocco's complex society, and much more, including cultural aspects pertaining to sexuality. "I wondered if Moroccan men compartmentalized their sexuality just as they compartmentalized 'their' women and regarded sex simply as lust, furtive pleasure, rather than an idiom for expressing affection or articulating relationships. Their machismo ensured that dominance and submission were constant themes between them, as between themselves and women or themselves and foreigners. Their homophobia, distributed differently across the social terrain than in America, was structured by these themes; rather than proscribing sex between men, the proscription was against the submissive, passive, male, an interesting parallel with their misogyny. The sexual object of male desire, whether male or female, was both a site of male pleasure and of male pollution and opprobrium. That ambivalence, I think, fed the play of desire and the homosocial game as well." An intriguing cross-cultural perspective.