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"miriam cooke's engrossing book is probably the best, most readable, innovative, and intelligent work on the articulation of the tribal and the modern in the Gulf region." --Taieb Belghazi, Research Group on Migration and Culture, Faculty of Letters, Rabat
“cooke exquisitely captures the civilizational barzakh of the Arab Gulf states—the generative space connecting/disconnecting, mixing/separating “the tribal” and “the modern." She argues tribes, genealogies, and identities are newly invented yet powerful emblems of historical authenticity. Insightful, eminently readable -- a powerful analysis of modernity at its tribal heart.” --Suad Joseph, editor of Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures
List of contents
Introduction
1. Uneasy Cosmopolitanism
a. A Millennial Crossroad
b. Cities of Salt
c. Contamination
2. Pure Blood and the New Nation
a. The British
b. Nationalizing Tribes
c. Tribal Marriages
d. DNA and Money
3. The Idea of the Tribe
a. Invention of Tribes
b. Tribal Classes
4. The Brand
a. Invention of Traditions
b. Thinking through the Barzakh
5. Building the Brand
a. National Museums
b. Vernacular Architecture
c. Nationalizing Vernacular Architecture
6. Heritage Engineering
a. Modernizing Differently
b. Heritage Sports
c. Pearl Diving
d. Orientalist Art as Tribal History
e. The Heart of Doha
7. Performing the Nation
a. Tribal Dress in Gulf History
b. The Million’s Poet
c. Neo-Bedouin Language
8. Gendering the Tribal Modern
a. Uneasy Cosmopolitanism Again
b. Pathologizing the Gender Barzakh
c. Women Writing in the Barzakh
d. The Terrible Cold
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
About the author
miriam cooke is Braxton Craven Distinguished Professor of Arab Cultures at Duke University and author of several books, most recently Dissident Syria: Making Oppositional Arts Official (Duke, 2007) and Nazira Zeineddine: Biography of an Islamic Feminist Pioneer (Oneworld, 2010).
Summary
Exploring everything from fantasy architecture to neo-tribal sports and from Emirati dress codes to neo-Bedouin poetry contests, this title explodes the idea that the tribal is primitive and argues instead that it is an elite, exclusive, racist, and modern instrument for branding nations and shaping Gulf citizenship and identity.
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"Fascinating . . . . Her deft interweaving of examples from film, art, literature and architecture to reinforce her conceptual ideas helps to build a diverse and thought-provoking set of arguments. . . . The book is surprisingly accessible and a fairly quick read."
