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Culture and Conflict in the Middle East [Hardcover]

Philip Carl Salzman
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Book Description

December 31, 2007
In an era of increasing interaction between the United States and the countries of the Middle East, it has become ever more important for Americans to understand the social forces that shape Middle Eastern cultures. Based on years of his own field research and the ethnographic reports of other scholars, anthropologist Philip Carl Salzman presents an incisive analysis of Middle Eastern culture that goes a long way toward explaining the gulf between Western and Middle Eastern cultural perspectives.

Salzman focuses on two basic principles of tribal organization that have become central principles of Middle Eastern life—balanced opposition (each group of whatever size and scope is opposed by a group of equal size and scope) and affiliation solidarity (always support those closer against those more distant). On the positive side, these pervasive structural principles support a decentralized social and political system based upon individual independence, autonomy, liberty, equality, and responsibility. But on the negative side, Salzman notes a pattern of contingent partisan loyalties, which results in an inbred orientation favoring particularism: an attitude of my tribe against the other tribe, my ethnic group against the different ethnic group, my religious community against another religious community. For each affiliation, there is always an enemy.

Salzman argues that the particularism of Middle Eastern culture precludes universalism, rule of law, and constitutionalism, which all involve the measuring of actions against general criteria, irrespective of the affiliation of the particular actors. The result of this relentless partisan framework of thought has been the apparently unending conflict, both internal and external, that characterizes the modern Middle East.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"...argues that the confrontation that has erupted across the globe may have as many Arab as Islamic roots. Culture and Conflict in the Middle East defines the patterns intrinsic to Arab culture and shows how they shape behavior in ordinary daily interactions in the region as well as in broad-based political confrontations. This lucidly written study should be on the reading list of every introductory course on the Middle East. Salzman's book blends fascinating case studies with a deep understanding of how culture functions across time and space in the Middle East." -- Donna Robinson Divine, Morningstar Family Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Government, Smith College, author of Women Living Change and Politics and Society in Ottoman Palestine

"Salzman, an anthropologist, has peered deeply into the social structure of Middle Eastern societies to develop an original, powerful, and persuasive theory about the reluctance of peoples from that region to accept modern ways. In a nutshell, he points out that they overwhelmingly divide into tribal members or the subjects of despotism; they are not citizens. The insights are deep and the implications plentiful. It's one the handful of most important books I've read during nearly four decades of studying the Middle East." -- Daniel Pipes -- Director, Middle East Forum

About the Author

Philip Carl Salzman (Montreal, Canada) is professor of anthropology at McGill University; the founding chair of the Commission on Nomadic Peoples of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences; the founding editor of Nomadic Peoples; and the author of Black Tents of Baluchistan; Pastoralism: Equality, Hierarchy, and the State; Thinking Anthropologically; and Understanding Culture.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Humanity Books; First Edition edition (December 31, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1591025877
  • ISBN-13: 978-1591025870
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1 x 9.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Philip Carl Salzman, B.A. (Antioch), M.A., Ph.D. (Chicago)
Professor of Anthropology, McGill University (1968-present)
Houtan Senior Visiting Fellow, University of St. Andrews, Scotland (2010)
Erasmus Mundus International Fellow, University of Catania, Sicily (2012)
Open Society Academic Fellowship Program International Scholar, American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan (2011-2012)
Visiting Professor, China Studies Centre, University of Sydney (2013):

As a sociocultural anthropologist, I had the good fortune to carry out ethnographic field research for 27 months among nomadic tribes and settled cultivators in Iranian Baluchistan during the period 1967-76. My findings have been reported in Black Tents of Baluchistan (Smithsonian, 2000; winner of the Premio internazionale Pitré-Salomone Marino), and have contributed to a more general treatment of pastoral nomads and tribes, discussed in Pastoralists: Equality, Hierarchy, and the State (Westview, 2004). My interests in nomadic peoples led me to organize the Commission on Nomadic Peoples of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, and to found the international journal, Nomadic Peoples (currently published by Berghahn), for which the IUAES granted me their "Gold Award."

Drawing on my appreciation of tribal organization, I have tried in Culture and Conflict in the Middle East (Humanity, 2008) to explain what appear to be structural problems underlying the seemingly endless conflicts and counterproductive movements in the contemporary Middle East. At the same time, in Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israel Conflict, P. C. Salzman and D. R. Divine, eds. (Routledge, 2008), my collaborators and I have tried to demonstrate that alternative, postcolonial explanations of current problems in the Middle East are ill-conceived and unfounded. For this and other related work, in 2009 Scholars for Peace in the Middle East honored me with their Presidential Award.

Complementing my study of tribes with field research among peasants, I carried out ethnographic field research among pastoralists in Gujarat and Rajasthan (1985) and, leading a team of researchers, among shepherds and others in highland Sardinian communities (1990-95), the latter reported in The Anthropology of Real Life: Events in Human Experience (1999).

My current research on the compatibility of ultimate value objectives focuses on freedom and equality, and the ways in which these are reconciled or balanced in societies around the world, among tribes, peasants, farmers, and urbanites.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars 100% Accurate July 7, 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Dr. Salzman has hit a home run with this book. I have spent a number of years in the Middle East and have dealt with virtually every segment of the population there, from nomads to farmers to businessmen to politicians, engineers, doctors, women, soldiers, and even insurgents. What I saw while I was there coincides completely with the information contained in this work. Not only does he draw from personal experience, Dr. Salzman also pulls from expert research in the field of Middle Eastern Studies to weave a masterpiece.

Be advised: Dr. Salzman does not pull his punches regarding the shortcomings of Middle Eastern culture. While much of what he writes may be difficult for some to swallow, it is true. Other reviewers may fault him for not conducting a similar review of Western culture, but please note the title; this is a survey of Middle Eastern culture, not Western culture or even culture in general. There are many similarities among cultures across the world, but each culture stresses certain qualities and attributes differently, and Dr. Salzman's expertise in the field of Middle Eastern culture enables him to make an excellent analysis of its particular strengths and weaknesses. Those who take issue with his work will do so along emotional lines because his writing is not "polite" or flattering. When any culture is exposed to the harsh light of educated analysis, the warts will show; Middle Eastern culture is no different from any other in that respect.

In conclusion, for any potential reader, I would like to make this comment. If Dr. Salzman had published this work in 2001, and every American and Allied officer had been required to read this before the invasion of Iraq, the current Iraqi conflict would have ended 3-4 years ago. This book is that accurate, powerful, and insightful. Everyone who has any contact with the Middle East should read it, or ignore it at their own peril.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Sheds critical new light September 12, 2008
Format:Hardcover
McGill University Anthropology Professor Philip Carl Salzman in 1978 founded the Commission on Nomadic Peoples and served as its chair through 1993. In three earlier stints (1967-68; 1972-73; 1976) he had done field research studying n Iranian Baluchistan nomadic, pastoral tribes, and subsequently wrote the anthropology texts, Black Tents of Baluchistan and Understanding Culture: An Introduction to Anthropological Theory. Salzman therefore conceives of Middle Eastern Arab culture as a formal social control he labels "balanced opposition," which he describes in this brief and excellent work.

Salzman notes that within this "ingenious" anthropological "collective responsibility" system, proved by observing actual constructs of the society in question, everyone belongs to "a nested set of kin groups, from very small to very large," each one "vested with responsibility" to defend "each and every one of its members" as well as for any harms its members might cause to "outsiders." Similarly, anthropologists label whatever the group simultaneously does to defend itself "self-help."

Confrontations within this social structure aligns small groups against opposing small groups, mid-sized groups against other mid-sized groups, large groups against opposing large groups etcetera, that is "family vs. family, lineage vs. lineage, clan vs. clan, tribe vs. tribe, confederacy vs. confederacy, sect vs. sect, the Islamic community (umma) vs. the infidels." Thus the system creates a form of deterrence, or "balance between opposites," in which no individual faces any group alone, no small group faces a larger group alone, and so on. Consequently, potential adversaries realize that any target within this system will never be "solitary or meager," but rather always "a formidable formation much the same size as his."

Thus does Salzman observe that Islam was superimposed over this structure, making all smaller groups subordinate segments of the entire "balanced opposition" and "self-help" constructs. Consequently, Islam naturally balances against all non-Muslim nations and people. Despite a somewhat dispersed power base within these subordinate groups, thus allowing for equality at the local or tribal level, Salzman notes that the system overall creates "particularism of loyalties," which quite naturally spawn anti-democratic conditions.

These political values, incompatible with any "universalistic normative," Salzman documents specifically, in countries such as Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Iran and Afghanistan. He also cites the same depressing statistics used by Ibn Warraq in Defending the West, namely, the Arab Human Development Report 2002, plus statistics from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which with neither one can argue, given the authoring agencies' built-in Arabist biases.

As an anthropologist, Salzman maintains amazing objectivity throughout, specifically noting, "...it is not the job of anthropologists to laud societies or to criticize them, or to celebrate or to demean them," making it "a very delicate matter" to address problems and difficulties" within any specific social constructs, particularly in instances that those problems are "culturally driven."

Nevertheless, he does conclude that Middle Eastern Arab and Muslim societies are constructed atop a "complimentary opposition" structure that tends to preclude "building a civil society, establishing democracy at the state level, maintaining state support for state institutions, founding creative educational institutions, inspiring economic development, and building an inclusive public culture..."

The author also affords solid examples of balanced opposition at work within the seemingly mechanical fall back of the Baluch people (straddling Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan) upon feuding and vendetta-driven reactions, as well as by Gazan clans (or "kin groups"), and even Israeli Bedouins. Of course, he also provides examples of the bloody results of these parallel balanced opposition social constructs that today generally also fall within an Islamic superstructure.

As a natural result, these varying groups do not integrate easily or well, thus creating "...sectarian conflicts" even in presumably modern cities like Baghdad, for example, and the "Shiite-Sunni conflict for domination" that ruined Beirut in the 1980s and ultimately making Lebanon itself "Karachi at the turn of the millennium."

Salzman also courageously demonstrates how this "balanced opposition" has historically operated to hallow and even deify the Islamic institution of perennial jihad. He cites the description given by British anthropologist Sir Edward Evan (E. E.) Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973), for example, the "compensation" of Libya's Bedouin of Cyrenaica for their general unorthodox observance of Islamic rituals with their total, religious dedication to military jihad, "holy war against the unbelievers."

Observing the admonishment that "piety and holiness...are not the same," Evans-Pritchard had noted in The Sanusi of Cyrenaica and The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People their belief in fulfilling "their obligation under this head in ample measure by their long and courageous fight" within the holy war declared by the Islamic Caliph against the Italians, French, and British. A Bedouin had told Evans-Pritchard, upon his observation that they rarely prayed, "nasum wa najhad, (but) we fast and wage holy war."

And that, of course, was long before the resurgence of Islam that has increasingly dominated the Mideast over the last 30 years.

Thus Salzman dedicates chapter 5, "Turning toward the world: Tribal organization and predatory expansion," to the considerable anthropological evidence of historical jihad, demonstrating that "tribal solidarity and balanced opposition have been and are powerful means of predatory expansion," including the principal of "submission---islam---to God."

Mohammed himself, Salzman concludes used balanced opposition to "frame an inclusive structure within which the tribes had a common, God-given identity as Muslim." Citing others' work, including that of Marshall Sahlins and Dr. Andrew Bostom, among others, Salzman evidences and discusses the anthropological manifestations of the Islamic jihad conquests of Arabia, Syria, northern and sub-Saharan Africa, Iberia, the Indian subcontinent, and even as far north as Poland, including the creation of the dhimmi status that Muslims universally imposed on non-Muslims, even in India.

This book is a fabulous and most scholarly endeavor, despite its 212-page brevity (excepting bibliography and index.) Whether or not one is an anthropologist, it sheds critical new light on middle eastern social constructs.

---Alyssa A. Lappen
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Rich explanation of Arab Tribalism June 8, 2008
Format:Hardcover
Watch out for the negative reviews that are bound to be posted by multiculturalists.

This book is a powerful, lucidly written and unique contribution to the discussion which brings an ethnographers eye and work to the question of tribalism and its link to Arab political corruption and lack of social progress. Far from a damning ciritcism of Arab culuture Salzam elucidates the brilliance of the tribal dynamic of balanced opposition in reducing violence and granting the strength of group idnetity. For Salzman the problem arises when that same dynamic is so structurally pervasive that it inhibits a society's ability to adhere to abtsract principles such as rule of law and maintenance of individual rights.

Some will accuse Salzman, very unfairly and inaccurately, of being a western triumphalist, trust me, such people are simply outraged that his objectivity has led to critical judgments. His section on the myth of an Islamic tolerant golden age is particularly necessary in light of the usual drivel on the topic.

Salzman's work is part of a growing body of correction to the vision of Edward Said and an all the more important one as it comes from an anthropologist/ethnographer perspective.

Salzman's writing exhibits commendable brevity and clarity considering the nature of the subject.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars breaking view
Salzman brought me insights that helped me to unravel behaviour that I did not understand till I saw what tribalism ment
Published 6 months ago by peter louter
5.0 out of 5 stars Middle-eastern tribal ethos
A splendid book on the middle eastern tribes and how the tribal ethos affects the ways of islam. And how islam and tribal ethos affect the development (past, present, future) of... Read more
Published 21 months ago by jukka aakula
5.0 out of 5 stars very insightful and revealing
there is not a lot i can say about this book, apart from it is a ground breaking, extremely insightful discussion on the tribal mind that still largely determines middle eastern... Read more
Published on August 10, 2010 by dune cruiser
5.0 out of 5 stars Tribal Society and the Modern World
The thesis of this book is that traditional Arab society is based on "balanced opposition" between tribal groups. Read more
Published on May 23, 2010 by Blair Dowden
1.0 out of 5 stars Culture war
A book by a culture warrior for culture warriors. The author is knowledgeable, and this is a book of ideas. Unfortunately the ideas are fascistic. Read more
Published on March 5, 2009 by n_da_FOB
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly engaging and informative
From all I have read about the past and current situation in the Middle East, this book has provided the most illuminating account of the stumbling blocks Arab countries face... Read more
Published on September 1, 2008 by E Rodriguez
3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book, Spoiled
Salzman's book gets an qualified good review from me; I think he has made a strong case for his analysis of a very unfortunate dynamic of Arab tribal culture. Read more
Published on September 1, 2008 by RD_C_4_life
2.0 out of 5 stars Too Narrow a Scope
A great many of the references to the tribal lifestyle and Islam are 100% correct. The author does a good job of presenting aspects of tribalism and how tribes maintain... Read more
Published on June 23, 2008 by Jeremy Devor
5.0 out of 5 stars Tribalism: the unacknowledged soverign.
This book explains in vivid detail the totally different world view of a tribal society when contrasted with those with which we in the west are familiar. Read more
Published on May 12, 2008 by Anthony J. Adolph
5.0 out of 5 stars absolutely eye-opening
Stanley Kurtz is right about this book. It is a must read for all those desirous of understanding and fighting against Islamic jihadism.
Published on May 9, 2008 by miasarx
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