bullmes.html

The September 11 Tragedy

and Beyond


Anthropological Resources

Sponsored by the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association

last updated 12/3/02 As anthropologists who study Middle Eastern cultures, including the religion of Islam, we aim to provide accurate and appropriate information for our colleagues, educators, students, journalists and the public at large. This page provides links to anthropological perspectives on the tragedy of September 11th and its aftermath, especially the cultural background of the Middle East and Islam. The focus is on commentary by anthropologists and ethnographic analysis. We share this information in the hope that it will contribute to a better understanding of America's relationship with societies in the Middle East and the current crisis. Members are invited to suggest additional sources for inclusion in this resource page.

• Dan Varisco, President, MES
• Jon Anderson, Past President, MES

SEPTEMBER 11 AND AFTER

General Information

Online Commentaries by Anthropologists

ANTHROPOLOGY OF ISLAM
MIDDLE EAST CULTURES

Afghanistan

Iran

Pakistan

Palestinians

Yemen

SEPTEMBER 11 AND AFTER

General Information

• Advice to Educators from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Organizations http://www.adc.org/education/advice.htm
• Afgha.com http://www.afgha.com/: [Latest news releases, archives]

• Afghanistan, the Taliban, and the US: selected internet resources (UC Berkeley) http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/SSEAL/SouthAsia/afghan_US.html: [Links on Afghanistan, effects of the US war, human rights | al-Qa'ida & Osama bin Laden, Taliban, Afghans in diaspora | news sources & online journals ]
• American Muslims and Scholars Denounce Terrorism (CSID) http://www.islam-democracy.org/terrorism_statement.asp
• Background: Bin Laden http://www.al-bab.com/arab/background/laden.htm
[A comprehensive guide to information about Bin Laden.]
• In the Aftermath of September 11, 2001 http://www.aaiusa.org/aftermath.htm

• The Commons of the Tragedy: How the Internet was used by millions after the terror attacks to grieve, console, share news, and debate the country's response http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=46: [Pew Foundation report]

• Islam and September 11: A Teacher's Guide http://www.aicongress.org/tolerance/teacher1.htm

• Osama bin Laden - al Qaeda Network Government files http://www.paperlessarchives.com/binladen.html: [Site advertising cd with 11,400 pages of govt. documents, etc.]

• Resource List: Islam in the Wake of September 11 (Michael Sells) http://www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/resources_Islam_Sept11.htm
• Scholars of Islam speak out against terrorism http://groups.colgate.edu/aarislam/response.htm
• September 11 and Beyond: An Online Resource Guide (AMIDEAST) http://www.amideast.org/news_and_events/sept11/webresources_sept11.htm
• The September 11 Sourcebooks (National Security Archives) http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB55/index1.html
• The September 11 Web Archive http://150.156.112.3/analysis.html: [The September 11 Web Archive is a collaboration between the Library of Congress, the Internet Archive and webArchivist.org.]

• Terrorist Attacks on America http://www.themodernreligion.com/terrorism.htm#list: [Major listing of relevant commentaries]

Online Commentaries by Anthropologists

Beeman, William O. (Brown University): • AMERICA'S UZBEK CONNECTION MAY INFLAME ALL OF CENTRAL ASIA http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/publications/Uzbek.htm; • The Mess in East Africa and Afghanistan is Partly the Fault of the U.S. Government http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/publications/AFGHANConflict.htm; • Postscript to Sept. 11 - What Would Margaret Mead Say? http://www.pacificnews.org/content/pns/2001/nov/1127margaretmead.html; • Russia May Win, U.S. Lose in Kabul Takeover http://www.pacificnews.org/content/pns/2001/nov/1114kabultakeover.html; • The Tajikistan Connection: A Tenuous Proposition http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/publications/Tajikistan.htm; • Understanding Osama Bin Laden http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/publications/BinLaden.htm; • "We are Fighting Terrorism, not Islam" is not a credible declaration to Middle Easterners http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/publications/Islam.htm; • Why Bush's Line in the Sand Won't Hold http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/publications/Bush.htm; • Why Middle Eastern Terrorists Hate the United States http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/publications/Oppose.htm; • Why a Military Response Won't Work - Historic Roots of Mideast Grievances http://www.pacificnews.org/content/pns/2001/sep/0919roots.html

Eco, Umberto: • The roots of conflict http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,568431,00.html; [This is a commentary about anthropology]

Edwards, David B. (Williams College): • The Bombs of October; • Enlisting Afghan Aid (David B. Edwards & Shahmahmood Miakhel); • Fast, Feast, and Famine; • Outwitting Osama; • Thinking beyond the Taliban
Ellis, Bill (Penn State, Hazleton): • A Model for Collecting and Interpreting World Trade Center Disaster Jokes http://www.temple.edu/isllc/newfolk/wtchumor.html

Grider, Sylvia (Texas A&M University): • Spontaneous Shrines: A Modern Response to Tragedy and Disaster http://www.temple.edu/isllc/newfolk/shrines.html

Hanifi, M. Jamil

• DISTORTING THEORY AND MISREADING SOCIETY IN AFGHANISTAN

• Taleban: The Word http://people.hofstra.edu/faculty/daniel_m_varisco/wtccom.htm#hani

Murphy, Richard McGill: • THINK FIRST, BOMB LATER: Why A Strike Against Afghanistan Would Actually Help Bin Laden http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20010926_murphy.html

Schneider, Jane (CUNY and Peter (Fordham): • Lessons from the Antimafia Struggle in Sicily

Shahrani, Nazif: • Afghanistan Can Learn From Its Past http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/14/opinion/14SHAH.html

Shipman, Pat (Penn State University): • On the Nature of Violence http://americanscientist.org/Issues/Macroscope/Macroscope2001-11.html

Tiger, Lionel (Rutgers University): • Rogue Males http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,561712,00.html

Varisco, Daniel Martin (Hofstra University): • Anthropology, the Web and the War on Terror
Anthropoology of Islam
Anderson, Jon (Catholic University of America): • "Is the Internet Islam's 'Third Wave' or the 'End of Civilization'?" http://www.usip.org/oc/vd/confpapers/polrelander.html; • "New Media in the Muslim World" http://www.isim.nl/newsletter/5/media/1.html

Armbrust , Walter: • The Riddle of Ramadan: Media, Consumer Culture, and the 'Christmas-ization' of a Muslim Holiday http://www.aaanet.org/mes/lectarm.htm

Blank, Jonah: • Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity among the Daudi Bohras http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/056767.html [Book excerpt]

Buchman, David: "The Underground Friends of God and their Adversaries: A Case Study and Survey of Sufism in Contemporary Yemen" Yemen Update 39 (1997:21-24) http://www.aiys.org/webdate/sufi.html

El Aswad, El Sayed (Tanta University): • MUSLIM SERMONS: Public Discourse in Local and Global Scenario http://www.aaanet.org/mes/lectasw.htm

Shahrani, M. Nazif: • RESISTING THE TALIBAN AND TALIBANISM IN AFGHANISTAN: LEGACIES OF A CENTURY OF INTERNAL COLONIALISM AND COLD WAR POLITICS IN A BUFFER STATE http://www.afghanradio.com/news/2001/february/resisting_taliban02112001.html; http://www.mfa.gov.tr/grupa/percept/V-4/shahrani.10.htm

Varisco, Daniel Martin (Hofstra University): • "The Islamic Concept of Holy War" http://www.geocities.com/dmvarisco/jihad.html; • SLAMMING ISLAM: PARTICIPANT WEBSERVATION WITH A WEB OF MEANINGS TO BOOT http://www.aaanet.org/mes/lectvar1.htm; •"The Tragedy of a Comic: Fundamentalist Christian Propaganda Against Islam" http://www.geocities.com/dmvarisco/lect.html

MIDDLE EAST CULTURES

Afghanistan


• The Buddhas of Bamiyan Links http://www.tamu.edu/anthropology/Buddhas.html
• From the Field: Voices of Women from Kunduz (November 21, 2001 ) http://www.phrusa.org/usa_attack/kunduz.html [Interviews of human rights researcher]
• Hazara Cultural and Historical Archives http://members.tripod.com/~ismat/
• Languages of Afghanistan http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Afghanistan
Strand, Richard F.: • "Nuristan: Hidden Land of the Hindu Kush" http://users.sedona.net/~strand/

Paksoy, H. B.: • "OBSERVATIONS AMONG KIRGHIZ REFUGEES FROM THE PAMIRS OF AFGHANISTAN SETTLED IN THE TURKISH REPUBLIC" http://www.ukans.edu/~ibetext/texts/paksoy-6/cae11.html

• Virtual Afghanistan http://www.afghan-network.net/Culture/: [Non-anthropological site with details on Afghan culture]

• Williams Afghan Media Project http://lanfiles.williams.edu/%7Ededwards/wamp.htm
• Watan Afghanistan http://afghanan.net/index.shtml: [Non-anthropological site with details on Afghan culture]

Iran

Beeman, William O.: • Emotion and Sincerity in Persian Discourse: Accomplishing the Representation of Inner States International Journal of the Sociology of Language http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/publications/Emotion.htm; • Iran is Changing. Can the United States Respond? http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/publications/IranisChanging.htm

Pakistan

• Colours on the road: Truck painting in Pakistan http://www.asienhaus.org/galerie/lkws/english/lkw.htm
Lindholm, Charles: • Images of the Pathan: The Usefulness of Colonial Ethnography http://www.bu.edu/anthrop/faculty/lindholm/Pathan1A.html

• Pakistan: Library of Congress Country Study http://anthropology.about.com/library/LoC/blPakistan5.htm

Palestinians

Bowman, G.: • "'A Country of Words': Conceiving the Palestinian Nation from the Position of Exile " http://www.ukc.ac.uk/anthropology/staff/glenn/Laclau.html; • "Nationalising the Sacred: Shrines and Shifting Identities in the Israeli-Occupied Territories" http://www.ukc.ac.uk/anthropology/staff/glenn/Man.html; [ Excerpt from Man: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, XXVIII:3. Sept. 1993]

King-Irani, Laurie: • "The best lack all conviction…." http://electronicIntifada.net/diaries/archives/00000226.shtml; • "Dangerous Assumptions: Insidious Ideologies and Necessary Questions" http://electronicIntifada.net/features/articles/020508laurie.shtml; • "Getting away with murder: Israeli impunity triumphs again" http://electronicIntifada.net/features/articles/020724laurie.shtml

• PALESTINIAN FOLKLORE http://www.barghouti.com/folklore/

Yemen

Dahlgren, Susanne (University of Helsinki): • "Women's Lib, the Southern Way: Reflections from the Past Decades" Yemen Update 43 (2001) http://www.aiys.org/webdate/dahl.html

Kangas, Beth (University of Arizona): • "Introduction to Ethnomedicine: Examples from Yemen" Yemen Update 35 (1994): 22-27) http://www.aiys.org/webdate/kang.html

Miller, W. Flagg: •"Qasidas on Cassettes" Yemen Update 39 (1997):25 http://www.aiys.org/webdate/qas.html

Dahbany-Miraglia, Dina (Queensborough Community College, CUNY): •"Getting Away with Murder: The Application of Marriage Laws in Jewish Yemen" http://www.utoronto.ca/wjudaism/journal/vol2n1/article1_d.html

Stevenson, Thomas B.: • "Capturing History: Listening to Oral Narratives in Yemen" The World & I http://www.worldandi.com/public/2002/january/teller.html; • "A Day in 'Amran" Yemen Update 42 (2000):9-17 http://www.aiys.org/webdate/amran.html; [excerpt from Social Change in a Yemeni Highlands Town, University of Utah Press, 1985]

Varisco, Daniel Martin (Hofstra University): • "After New York ... Before Sanaa: A Postmodern Lufthansa Lullaby" Yemen Update 40 (1998) http://www.aiys.org/webdate/luft.html; • "Yemen Geographicalized" Yemen Update 42 (2000):63-67 http://www.aiys.org/webdate/ngmapr.html

Varisco, Daniel Martin , Abdul Rahman Dubaie, Muhammad Jazm, Muhammad Mahyub, Abd al-Wali al-Khuleidi: "INDIGENOUS PLANT PROTECTION IN YEMEN" http://www.aiys.org/webdate/plant1.html

Walters, Delores M.: • "Murshidat ,Midwives and Nurses: Women Transforming Health Care and Social Relations in Yemen" Yemen Update 40 (1998:32) http://www.aiys.org/webdate/walt.html; • "Transforming Cultural, Racial and Gender Categories: An Ethnographic Update on Social Relations in Two Northern Yemeni Communities" Yemen Update 37 (1995: 6-9) http://www.aiys.org/webdate/walt.html

contact the webshaykh: socdmv@hofstra.edu