PAGS 311: Anthropology in the Middle East

In this course, we will use anthropological approaches to the Middle East to combat commonplace narratives of timeless antagonisms, irrational and violent religiosity, and prehistoric misogyny. Historicizing and problematizing these assumptions opens us up to different kinds of questions: not, why is this region so much more violent than other places, but why do we consider this a region at all? What counts as Middle East/and why? Following a historical exploration of these issues, we will read contemporary ethnographic accounts of life in different parts of the Middle East, with particular attention to Egypt, Palestine, and Lebanon. This is a survey course; it should leave you with more questions than you started with. But at the same time, it aims to provide you with the tools to think critically about news coming out of the Middle East/whether on Fox News or in the New York Times/including a basic background on Islam, questions of gender, and, topically, Israel-Palestine and the Arab Spring and its fallout.