Philip Carl Salzman
Encyclopedia
Research
Salzman received his Ph.D. at the University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in 1972. He has done field research among pastoral peoples
Nomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...
, in Baluchistan (Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
), Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
(India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
), and Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
(Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
).
He has a particular interest in the study of social change, and in "the ways in which particular groups have transformed over time." Perceiving change as "part of social organization rather than extraneous to it."
Salzman is drawing attention for his book Culture and Conflict in the Middle East
Culture and Conflict in the Middle East
Culture and Conflict in the Middle East is a 2008 book by Philip Carl Salzman, a professor of Anthropology at McGill University.Culture and Conflict is an attempt to understand Middle Eastern politics and society as an outcome of the fact that tribal organization central to Arab culture...
. The National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
and Middle East Quarterly
Middle East Quarterly
Middle East Quarterly is a peer reviewed quarterly journal, a publication of the American conservative think tank Middle East Forum founded by Daniel Pipes in 1994. It is devoted to subjects relating to the Middle East and Islam and analyzes the region "explicitly from the viewpoint of American...
have published material drawn from the book, scheduled for publication February 27, 2008.
He applies his expertise in the study of tribal
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
societies to contemporary conflicts. He demonstrates "how the dual pattern of tribal self-rule and tyrannical centralism continues to define life in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, and using it to explain the region's most characteristic features, such as autocracy
Autocracy
An autocracy is a form of government in which one person is the supreme power within the state. It is derived from the Greek : and , and may be translated as "one who rules by himself". It is distinct from oligarchy and democracy...
, political mercilessness, and economic
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
stagnancy. It accounts [...] for [...] Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
's 'bloody borders' - the widespread hostility toward non-Muslims."
"The Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
Middle East has remained largely a pre-modern society, governed by clan relationships and violent coercion. People... tend to trust only their relatives, and then only relative to their degree of closeness... A pervasive cult of honour
Honour
Honour or honor is an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or corporate body such as a family, school, regiment or nation...
requires that people support their own groups, violently if necessary, when conflict arises.
"What is missing in the Arab Middle East are the cultural tools for building an inclusive and united state. The cultural glue of the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
and other successful modern societies --consisting of the rule of law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and constitutionalism
Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism has a variety of meanings. Most generally, it is "a complex of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law"....
, which serve to regulate competition among unrelated groups -- is absent in the Arab world. The frame of reference in a tribalized society is always "my group vs. the other group." This system of "balanced opposition" is the structural alternative that stands in stubborn opposition to Western constitutionalism [...] Islam [...] has failed as a political organizing principle.."
David Brooks
David Brooks
David Brooks may refer to:* David Brooks , American actor and stage director and producer* David Brooks , Australian author of short stories and co-editor for Southerly...
describes Salzman's work as arguing that, "many Middle Eastern societies are tribal. The most salient structure is the local lineage group. National leaders do not make giant sacrifices on behalf of the nation because their higher loyalty is to the sect or clan. Order is achieved not by the top-down imposition of abstract law. Instead, order is achieved through fluid balance of power agreements between local groups."
Public reception
Stanley KurtzStanley Kurtz
Stanley Kurtz is an American social commentator who identifies with the conservative movement.-Career and works:He is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a former Adjunct fellow with Hudson Institute, with a special interest in America's "culture wars." Kurtz writings on the...
calls Culture and Conflict in the Middle East "a major event: the most penetrating, reliable, systematic, and theoretically sophisticated effort yet made to understand the Islamist challenge the United States is facing in cultural terms."
Zerougui Abdelkader, an adjunct professor at American University, in reviewing the book states that "Some of Salzman’s observations about tribes in the Middle East are sound, but his overall thesis has little value. This book is flawed both empirically and logically... There may be more ethnic divisions and allegiances in New York City — with its Little Italy, Chinatown, and Black and Spanish Harlem and the Polish and Irish neighborhoods of Queens — than there are tribal and clan affiliations in Cairo and Tripoli."
Books
- 2008 Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israeli ConflictPostcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israeli ConflictPostcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israeli Conflict is a 2008 book edited by Philip Carl Salzman and Donna Robinson Divine and published by Routledge Press....
edited with Donna Robinson DivineDonna Robinson DivineDonna Robinson Divine is Morningstar Family Professor in Jewish Studies and Professor of Government at Smith College. She holds a B.A. from Brandeis University, 1963, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University, 1971, in Political Science...
, Routledge Press - 2007 Culture and Conflict in the Middle EastCulture and Conflict in the Middle EastCulture and Conflict in the Middle East is a 2008 book by Philip Carl Salzman, a professor of Anthropology at McGill University.Culture and Conflict is an attempt to understand Middle Eastern politics and society as an outcome of the fact that tribal organization central to Arab culture...
, Humanity (Prometheus). - 2007 Thinking Anthropologically: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR STUDENTS, Second Edition, edited with Pat Rice. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall. 121 pp.
- 2004 Pastoralism: Equality, Hierarchy, And The State. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
- 2003 Thinking Anthropologically: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR STUDENTS, edited with Pat Rice. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall. 99 pp.
- 2001 Understanding Culture: An Introduction To Anthropological Theory. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland. 165 pp. (Reviewed: JRAI 8 [4]:809, 2002)
- 2000 Black Tents Of Baluchistan. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. 390 pp. Winner of the Premio Pitrè–Salomone Marino.
- 1999 The Anthropology Of Real Life: Events In Human Experience. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, "Guide to Contemporary Anthropology" Series, 108 pp.
- 1996 Antropologia Delle Societa` Pastorali Tribali E Contadine//The Anthropology Of Tribal And Peasant Pastoral Societies, U. Fabietti & P.C. Salzman, editors. Como, Italy: Ibis; Pavia, Italy: Collegio Ghislieri. 472 pp.
- 1992 Kin And Contract In Baluchi Herding Camps, Baluchistan Monograph Series II. Naples: Istituto Universitario Oreintale & Istituto Italiano per Il Medeo ed Estremo Oriente. 109 pp.
- 1990 Nomadic Peoples In A Changing World, P.C. Salzman and J.G. Galaty, editors, Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale. 470 pp.
- 1982 Contemporary Nomadic And Pastoral Peoples: North Africa, Asia, And The North, P.C. Salzman, editor, Studies in Third World Societies, No. 18.
- 1982 Contemporary Nomadic And Pastoral Peoples: Africa And Latin America, P.C. Salzman, editor, studies in Third World Societies, No. 17
- 1981 Change And Development In Nomadic And Pastoral Societies, J.G. Galaty and P.C. Salzman, editors, Leiden, Brill.
- 1981 The Future Of Pastoral Peoples, J.G. Galaty, D.R. Aronson, and P.C. Salzman, editors, Ottawa, International Development Research Centre.
- 1980 When Nomads Settle: Processes Of Sedentarization As Adaptation And Response, P.C. Salzman, editor, Bergin/ Praeger.
Chapters and Articles
- 2007 "Making Ideas Researchable," P.C. Salzman & P. Rice, in Thinking Anthropologically: A Practical Guide For Students, Second Edition, edited with Pat Rice. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall. 121 pp.
- 2006 "Sardinia," Encyclopedia Of Anthropology, James Birx, ed.Sage. pp. 2053–2054.
- 2006 "Lineage Systems," Encyclopedia Of Anthropology, James Birx, ed.Sage. pp. 1478–1479.
- 2006 "Anthropology, Characteristics of, " Encyclopedia Of Anthropology, James Birx, ed. Sage. pp. 142–144.
- 2006 "Baluchistan," Encyclopedia Of Anthropology, James Birx, ed.Sage. pp. 331–332.
- 2006 "Karl Popper," Encyclopedia Of Anthropology, James Birx, ed.Sage. pp. 1899–1900.
- 2006 "Post-colonialism," Encyclopedia Of Anthropology, James Birx, ed.Sage. pp. 1910–1912.
- 2005 "The Iron Law of Politics," Politics And The Life Sciences 23(2):20-49, August
- 2003 "Introduction" (with Pat Rice), in Thinking Anthropologically, Salzman and Rice, eds. Prentice Hall.
- 2003 "What Anthropologists Are Looking For: Patterns," in Thinking Anthropologically, Salzman and Rice, eds., Prentice Hall (2003).
- 2003 "Thinking Theoretically," in Thinking Anthropologically, Salzman and Rice, eds., Prentice Hall (2003).
- 2002 "On Reflexivity," American Anthropologist 104(3):805-813.
- 2002 "Pastoral Nomads: Some General Observations Based on Research in Iran", Journal Of Anthropological Research 58(2):245-264.
- 2002 "Highland Sardinians and their Environment", in Conservation And Indigenous Mobile Peoples: Displacement, Forced Settlement And Sustainable Development, D. Chatty, editor. Oxford: Berghahn.
- 2002 "What is an Ethnography?" ANTHROPOLOGY NEWS 43(4):49.
- 2001 "Ethnography, Humanity, and Imagination: Seeing Culture and Society through the Eyes of an Individual", in Strategies In Teaching Anthropology (Second Edition), David McCurdy and Patricia Rice, editors. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
- 2001 "Toward a Balanced Approach to the Study of Equality", CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 42(2): 281-284.
- 2000 "Hierarchical Image and Reality: The Construction of a Tribal Chiefship", Comparative Studies In Society And History 42 (1):49-66.
- 1999 "Is Inequality Universal?", Current Anthropology 40 (1): 31-61.
- 1999 "Mobilia e nomadismo", La Ricerca Folklorica 40:37-46, special issue on Societa Pastorali D’Africa E D’Asia, edited by Maria Arioti and Barbara Casciarri.
Articles Available Online
- Self-Induced Nakba By Philip Carl Salzman, Sandbox.blog-city.com October 15, 2008
External links
- Entry with the McGill Universities website
- The Middle East's Tribal DNA, Middle East QuarterlyMiddle East QuarterlyMiddle East Quarterly is a peer reviewed quarterly journal, a publication of the American conservative think tank Middle East Forum founded by Daniel Pipes in 1994. It is devoted to subjects relating to the Middle East and Islam and analyzes the region "explicitly from the viewpoint of American...
, Winter 2008 - http://www.mepc.org/create-content/book-review/culture-and-conflict-middle-east ["Book Review Culture and Conflict in the Middle East" Middle East Policy Council]