Challenging the Narrative: A Review of Miriam Cooke’s Tribal Modern – Harry Sanderson

In Tribal Modern: Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf, Miriam Cooke analyzes the dynamic development of tribes and their traditions in Gulf states whose societies have experienced unprecedentedly rapid modernization in the last thirty years. Cooke utilizes her own experience from traveling in the region, interviews with common Gulf citizens, and artistic literature to […]

The Modern and Traditional: A Reality – Michelle Rodriguez

The 1970s introduced a new of era of wealth within countries like Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, propelling their economies towards growth and societies towards modernity. Among these states, previously existing tribes had to make a decision as state borders hardened, either become a citizen or maintain their tribal (yet stateless) identities. In Miriam Cooke’s […]

Coexisting in a Modernization Theory, by Maria Renteria

Tribal Modern is a concise yet nuanced description of the Arab Gulf’s pre-modern history and its path to current modernity. Miriam Cooke masterfully introduces and creates the juxtaposing (to the West) idea of a tribal and modern society coexisting in the same time and space, mixing and simultaneously, not mixing. Through Cooke’s inclusion of anecdotal […]

Religion and Power in Morocco Review – Anna Cunningham

Tilework on a Mosque

Power and Religion in Morocco Book Review

For the past few Decembers, I spent around a week brainstorming what gifts might appeal to my relatives. They insist that they are happy with anything or that they don’t want anything at all. For the most part, this leaves me between […]

Religion and Power in Morocco Book Review – Kayla Smith

Henry Munson, Jr. discusses the role the monarchy, sharifa, and shaykhs played in the shaping of the political and religious history in Morocco, with a particular focus on 20thcentury fundamentalism in his book Religion and Power and Morocco. Munson works as a professor of anthropology at the University of Maine where he primarily researches late […]

Religion and Politics in Morocco Review- Michelle Rodriguez

The work Religion and Power in Morocco by Henry Munson Jr. seeks to partially analyze the work Islam Observed by Clifford Geertz and the popular misconceptions widely perpetuated among even educated anthropologists. Munson also attempts to investigate the complexities of religion and politics within Morocco without foregoing historical accuracy and stresses the realistic discrepancies among […]

Religion and Power in Morocco Review- Molly Mansfield

Henry Munson Jr.’s 1993 book Religion and Power in Morocco seeks to discuss the relationship between Islam and politics throughout Morocco’s history. Most of his argument is situated in opposition to anthropologist Clifford Geertz’s 1968 study Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia. Munson criticizes Geertz’s work for focusing too heavily upon personal accounts […]

Religion and Power in Morocco – Bailey Carkenord

In his book, Henry Munson Jr. attempts to record significant historical interactions between religious and political entities in Morocco in order to portray the relationship between the two. Religion and Power in Morocco also serves as a foil to Islam Observed by Clifford Geertz, Munson explains. Geertz utilized anthropological research methods to write Islam Observed—speaking […]

Religion and Power in Morocco Review – Noah Huffman

Look at any newspaper or television broadcast and undoubtedly there will be discussion of Islam or the Middle East. Conflict in the modern era centers around issues such as tensions between Israel and Palestine, terrorism, and the Syrian civil war. These topics are some of the most pertinent crises that challenge nations today. Conferences tackling […]

A Review of Religion and Power in Morocco – Harry Sanderson

In Religion and Power in Morocco, Henry Munson attempts to analyze the evolution of the role of Islam in the political sphere of Moroccan society. Primarily, Munson utilizes ancient Moroccan mythical stories of “saintly scholars” to explain the changing nature of political Islam in Morocco. Throughout his book, Munson critiques Geertz’s Islam Observed, describing the […]

Religion and Power in Morocco- Ahmed Salat

Henry Munson’s book Religion and Power in Morocco tries to explains in detail the complex relationship between religion and power in Morocco through analysis of political and religious events of the seventeenth century to late twentieth century. Through combination of history through folklores, passed down from generation to generation by Moroccans, and cultural anthropology, Munson […]

Religion and Power in Morocco , by Maria Renteria

The main purpose of Henry Manson through his book, Religion and Power in Morocco, is to provide an alternative argument to the political role of Islam in pre-colonial Morocco. Though to do so he focuses on incidents of the “myth of the righteous man of God who dares to defy an unjust sultan,” he structures […]