Grog seems an apt term through which to describe my life these days. Imperial pints aside, I taught a book last week on aboriginal Australia (‘At Home in the World’ by Prof. M. Jackson) which unfortunately, discusses somewhat the aboriginal propensity to drink ‘grog’. But given the word’s use in colloquial English, or its association with grogginess, I reckon it well suits an entry mid-winter in the UK. For I’m three weeks into the term and have hardly seen the sun, let alone the light of day. Has been unusually wintry (cold and even snowy) till this week, in fact. The sun did show its face at the lunch hour, but this being England, an hour later a downpour falls as I write.
While I’m here in Canterbury to do doctoral research for my fieldwork in Macedonia, I am admittedly no longer in the Balkans. The feeling I have about that is mixed, and I think busyness and grogginess have kept such thoughts at bay. Yet when I open my eyes, particularly when in town, I see a very different world. The UK is a fast paced and individualistic society, where people are cordial but not nearly so hospitable as in Macedonia and around. Life here is characterized by that barbarian consumerism, though maybe due to the economy (quite sluggish still) not quite as bad as in the US.
Yet being away from both and now settling for the time being here, I ponder through my readings and experience that from where I came. Teaching and studying Anthropology, and particularly Southern Mediterranean/Middle Eastern culture, I see associations with the Balkans that align it culturally with the latter, not Western Europe. No doubt, as we’ve discussed in seminars, culture is fluid and subject to economic and political circumstances, but the overriding theme of our readings (so far largely on gender in Lebanon and Egypt) is that of honor codes, shame, kinship, and patriarchy. In one fascinating piece on an Arab community in Lebanon, we read about the reproduction and transferral of patriarchy through brother-sister relationships. As opposed to the vertical, father-daughter transferral of such traditions, this piece showed how valued brothers were to their sisters, despite what Western eyes would see as misogynistic behaviour. Brothers harass their sisters about their dress and appearance, sometimes physically. Yet parents don’t oppose, nor do the sisters in this case. They are being conditioned to be the female representatives of the family, to protect the family’s honor. At the same time, their brothers are being conditioned to be the dominant males. Thus sisters in fact have leverage given the role to which they’re being conditioned.
This week we read several pieces concerning veiling, which was eye opening. Veiling is dependent upon country and culture, but also economics. One piece we read in fact laid out the history of veiling in 20th century Egypt. In the 1920s, veiling was seen as indicative of conservatism and sexism, and an independent (of the government, such as in Turkey or Iran) women’s movement sprang forth that sought to unveil women and release them from their isolated, shrouded lives. Although this was more of an upper class movement, with lower classes quite busy, content or just used to the veil, the growing middle class lent the movement to it, and unveiling became quite popular. However, as this piece and another discuss, with growing Western influence and a changing economy, the latter half of the 20th century actually saw veiling grow in popularity again. Relevant to contemporary bans on veiling in W. Europe, the first piece stated that this was to be honorable, as the veil shows dignity and devotion to husband and home, as well as to alleviate any concerns of the former that working women might behave immodestly. In another piece though, the Women’s Mosque Movement (WMM) is discussed, and how piety (‘salat’) as habitus has resurfaced, to counter the ‘folklorification’ of Islam and wearing of the veil simply as cultural custom. Indeed, as opposed to just being an aspect of the cultural realm, devout women of the WMM contend that it should be of the heart and habit.
All in all, the readings are informative and as I mentioned, relevant to the diverse and conservative countries of the Balkans. Although my research veers elsewhere (see my blog from September 2009), being an Anthropologist is absorbing all about humanity and processing it through lived experience. Thus I consider these groggy days to be an interlude to the research and understanding yet to come.
