Suchergebnisse

This paper investigates the status of social science in the universities of the Gulf states. It tries to identify what is taught and to suggest why. It examines the positives, which include the construction of buildings, the effort to institute diversity in hiring faculty, and the institution of faculty exchange programmes. The negatives include state interference in curricula, the failure to establish courses in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of the social sciences, rote learning, and excessive deference to the needs of the market in structuring an academic programme, with a consequent stress on market economics, management and business administration at the expense of the social sciences.

The premise of this article is that anthropologists may examine how literature (and novels in particular) can be used by women to create meanings, and how these meanings are relevant to the lives of people in societies. It pursues this theme in the writings of Zaynab Hifni, a prominent younger-generation author whose works have been distributed widely in the Arab world, if not in her native Saudi Arabia. Writing in the realist tradition, Hifni seeks to challenge male-dominated discourses by exploring ways in which women can interpret cultural values and symbols for themselves and thus broaden their scope for choices.

Layla al-Jihni is one of several Saudi women novelists whose work has risen to prominence since the 1990s. She writes in a surrealistic, stream-of-consciousness style that features interior monologues and psychological introspection. Her work is published abroad, but on the basis of interviews I conducted with Saudi women, it is accessible in-country. Although al-Jihni is not an activist, and her works do not directly engage matters of policy, her reasons for writing are more than aesthetic and transcend the 'art for art';s sake' ethic. Discourse is a source of power and influence, and al-Jihni';s fiction contributes to this discourse in ways calculated to broaden the scope of choice for women in Saudi Arabian society.

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Study and Its Setting -- Part One: Political Autonomy, Domestically Organized Production, and Mercantile Trade -- 1. The Autonomous Amirate -- 2. The Old Agriculture -- 3. Craft Production and the Old Market -- 4. Caravans and Long-Distance Trade -- Part Two: Provincial City within a New State and the Development of Capitalist Social Formations -- 5. Development of the New State and Education -- 6. Occupational Change and New Institutions -- Part Three: Economic Boom and Transformation -- 7. The Economic Boom, Expatriates, and Local Development -- 8. The Market Today -- 9. The New Agriculture -- 10. Salaried Employment and Its Social Impact -- 11. Changing Patterns of Social Life -- 12. Analysis and Conclusion -- Glossary of Arabic Terms -- Bibliography -- Index