Syrian Episodes: Sons, Fathers, and an Anthropologist in Aleppo
by John Borneman
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Book Summary Information
Author: John BornemanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-02-26
ISBN: 0691128871
Number of pages: 268
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Book Reviews of Syrian Episodes: Sons, Fathers, and an Anthropologist in Aleppo
Book Review: Informative... a much needed approach
Summary: 4 Stars
An anthropological study of Aleppo is such a novelty that I could not wait to get my hands on the book.
The preface is a quick introduction to the modern Syrian political and cultural scene with a couple of useful analytical insights on how an anthropologist/ethnographer approaches his subjects : "...how in our encounters, do expectations and counterexpectations shape the questions we ask each other and the dynamics of our interaction?"
This and similar methodological and analytical questions should be kept in mind as one starts reading the Episodes themselves....otherwise, one runs the risk of being caught in a series of interactions which though entertaining at times, they become at some point superficial and pointless unless tightly framed within the research project of the author.
The coda is excellent in pulling together the material anew, giving sense and extracting meaning from the scattered episodes.
The author repeatedly stresses the necessity for the anthropologist to maintain ambiguity in the interpersonal encounter to allow for the unfolding of an unscripted interaction and he does practice that ambiguity. On another level, one is never completely in control of the elements one is projecting in the encounter, the author's polymorphous gender orientation may very well have been projected outside his own volition and must have in fact affected the way his interactions proceeded.
Although hinted at here and there, I missed a deeper analysis of the meaning of the author's foreigness/otherness in those encounters. Placed as the Episodes are against the backdrop of the American war in Iraq, the author favored the analysis of the meaning of his Americannness, as an assertive dominant otherness, in the encounters, over the meaning of his Otherness/Foreigness on every level- from physical to intellectual and religious- which in my assesment, affects the encounter with men and women from the Muslim culture- be they practicing Muslims or non-Muslims-very deeply and is revealed only to the experienced eye.
In all, well worth-reading.
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