Category Archives: Folklore and Proverbs

Toronto Talks

Anthropology/Sociology, Conferences and Talks, Folklore and Proverbs, Islamic Sciences, Islamic Texts, Orientalism

If you are reading this post today, Wednesday, I may very well be in the air on my way to Toronto, where I will be giving two lectures. Anyone who is interested is invited to attend.

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Science presents:

Daniel Martin Varisco (Hofstra University)

Star Gazing through Religious Phrasing: The Origins of a Lunar Zodiac in Early Islamic Astronomy

At Ryerson University in ENG LG14, George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre, 245 Church St. from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

One of the most important astronomical time-keeping calendars from the Arabian Peninsula is the so-called anwâ’, which early Muslim astronomers equated with the tradition of 28 lunar stations (manâzil al-qamar). Through a study of this calendar in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and Arabic lexical texts and by comparison to ethnographic accounts of existing Arabian star calendars, I argue that the system described in the evolving Islamic science of astronomy is one that did not arise in the Arabian Peninsula but was the result of cleansing the magical elements out of the earlier star lore and modeling this on the lunar zodiac of Sassanid Iran and India.


Refreshments will be served after the discussion.

The second talk will take place at the University of Toronto on Friday, January 15:

Anthropology Colloquium Series

Daniel Martin Varisco (Hofstra University)

The Culture Concept without a Textual Attitude: Reading against Orientalism and between the lines of Culture and Imperialism

Friday, January 15th, 2010. 2-4pm. Room 246.

Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, AP 246, 19 Russell St.

My paper for the University of Toronto is available online as a pdf.

Resolving the New Year

Folklore and Proverbs, Food and Drink


Wilfrid Scawn Blunt, left; Mark Twain, right

There is a curious annual custom inherited in many of our families, but one I am resolved not to take too seriously this year. I refer to the half-drunk notion of making resolutions for the new year (which I see no sound reason to capitalize, as my German blood is very far removed), as though the arbitrary turning of the calendar is a time to reflect on what went wrong over the last 365 days and pretend that things should go better in the next eighteen and a quarter score days. I have heard the rural urban tale that the pin-up 19th century cowgirl sharpshooter Annie Oakley started the custom of sending out Christmas Cards, but I am not sure which genius came up with penning new year’s resolutions, unless it was Johnny Walker in one of his more sober moments. Most people, and I surely fall into this anomalous category, do not remember the resolutions made a year ago. But then most godfearing redneck Americans could not repeat the 10 Commandments in order to save their souls, unless perhaps they were dead drunk. So my re-solution, since it is the defacto one I have been following for quite a few years, is to resolve to forget any resolution before I even make one. This saves me from having to make up a resolution, which is the same as making as silly a resolution as I can imagine.

I am not the first person to take aim at this impotent cultural pastime which has long since ceased to have any influence on what people really do. Mark Twain said it well over a century and a half ago:

New Year’s Day–Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Continue reading Resolving the New Year →

Poetry out of Arabia

Anthropology/Sociology, Books You Should Read, Folklore and Proverbs, Languages, Literature, Poetry, Saudi Arabia

[Webshaykh’s note: Dr. Saad Sowayan, as the post below will explain, has been collecting, analyzing and documenting the oral poetic traditions of the Arabian Peninsula, especially his native Saudi Arabia, since his graduate research. He has now completed two major works, available for reading on the internet, but still in search of an appropriate publisher. I invite readers to look over his impressive documentation and analysis and communicate with Dr. Sowayan any ideas that may help forward his project.]

by Dr. Saad Sowayan, King Saud University

After 10 years of continuous hard work, I managed to finish the two books, which, taking the size and importance of each, I consider to be my lifetime projects.
A) Legends & Oral Historical Narrative from Northern Arabia (1131 pages)
B) The Arabian Desert: Its Poetry & Culture Across the Ages: An Anthropological Approach (820 pages).

The first work, as its title says, is a collection of Bedouin narratives and poems relating to tribal genealogies, camel marks, tribal territories, water wells, sheikhs, warriors, tribal judges, tribal poets, personal histories, as well as narratives relating to raids and counter raids amongst tribes and other events. All of these are told by competent narrators & reciters in the various tribal dialects and all go back to pre and early 20th century. I have been engaged in taping this voluminous material during the span of the 4 years extending from 1982 up to 1985. Since 1995 I have been engaged in archiving, indexing, transcribing and editing this taped material which came to a total of several hundred hours of recorded interviews. Legends & Oral Historical Narratives from Northern Arabia (1131 pages) is the result of this effort very carefully transcribed and edited in Arabic script with full voweling tashkeel. The work comes with a very detailed table of contents and an introduction explaining the nature of the material along with some linguistic remarks and explanation of the transcription method I used. All in all, the work is a primary source on Arabian nomadic tribal culture, oral literature and vernacular language. This work constitutes a compliment to the works of P. Marcel Kurpershoek published in English by Brill in Leiden. Continue reading Poetry out of Arabia →

Heritage in a Global Era

Anthropology/Sociology, Folklore and Proverbs, United Arab Emirates

Heritage in a Global Era: The Integration of Modernity and Tradition in the UAE

by el-Sayed el-Aswad, United Arab Emirates University

As part of the United Arab Emirate’s celebration of International Heritage Day, the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) organized a conference held on March 18-19, 2009, entitled “Heritage: From Preservation and Documentation to Promotion and Transmission to Future Generations.” The conference provided a fresh perspective by rethinking the oppositions of modernity/tradition and globalism/localism. A number of leading figures in the field of anthropology, folklore and comparative studies participated in the workshop by presenting papers and engaging in discussions and debates concerning various topics including folk tales, child folklore, falconry, symbolism, worldviews, the preservation of oral literature, and heritage promotion. Intangible heritage, more specifically oral literature, is an important component in understanding not only cultural specificities of societies but also enhancing intercultural relations. The following are some basic questions addressed in the workshop: Does the global culture depict the future as relying primarily on economic, technological, and multi-corporate forces that demand systemization, integration and uniformity? Does the traditional culture conceive the future as contingent essentially on the continuation of heritage, value-systems, religion, rituals, and social-kinship relationships? Continue reading Heritage in a Global Era →

Flowers and Virtue

Ethics, Folklore and Proverbs, Gender and Sexuality, Yemen

[The following commentary discusses a recent attempt in Yemen to create religious police, such as are found in Iran, as an intrusion on Yemeni values and rights in the modern state.]

The paradox of “Mashaqir” and the religious police

Dr. Mohammed Al-Qadhi, Yemen Times

I think the best response to the establishment of a religious police force, under the banner of promoting virtue and curbing vice, is the mashaqir (traditional flowers women put on either side of their head) function run by the House of Folklore. I was extremely thrilled with spiritual joy with the function that revived in everybody nostalgia for a simple and pure life for both men and women free from extremism and fanaticism. The mashqour, a singular form of mashaqir, is a symbol of chastity and freedom women enjoyed in an ordinary rustic life. It also stands for an abused femininity now by a puritanical interpretation of life where everything is devilish and hellish and a male-dominated and masculine culture that considers women inferior to men.

See the paradox between a group of fundamentalist clerics that want to kill life and a function organized by Arwa Othman, director of House of Folklore, that wants to revive and breathe life into the society and women through restoring the culture of the mashaqir. Continue reading Flowers and Virtue →

Animal House in the 15th Century: Part 1

Animals, Books You Should Read, camels, Folklore and Proverbs, Literature

One of the most entertaining Arabic compendia on animal life, taken in the loose sense of the term for things that breathe or are thought to breathe, is the Hayât al-Hayawân (Life of Animals) of the Egyptian savant Kamâl al-Dîn Muhammad ibn Mûsâ al-Damîrî. Writing a century before Columbus discovered America, al-Damiri spins stories about animals with a variety of folklore about uses of animal products and parts. A scientist would no doubt shudder at the magical and literary focus of the text, only occasionally finding description useful today. A partial English translation was made by a British officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Jayakar, and published in two volumes in 1906 and 1908 in India. Unfortunately, this text is virtually inaccessible. I have looked at two copies, one in the New York Public Library and the other at the Library of Congress, and only with trepidation have I turned the fragile pages in this poorly bound volume. So far there is no digital version, which is a shame, since it is a delight to read.

Our author was a prolific copyist, quoting from over 800 other authors and providing a thousand entries, some simply an animal’s name and its more common synonym. Ironically, Jayakar’s Victorian sensitivity makes the translation as much an oddity as the primary work. Continue reading Animal House in the 15th Century: Part 1 →

Anthropology in Arabic

Anthropology/Sociology, Environment, Folklore and Proverbs, Teaching Resources

As is true of many fields of academic study, there are Arabic introductions to the subjects. Many of these are little more than perfunctory translations of English-language textbooks. For a refreshing Arabic text introducing the whole field of Anthropology to Arabic readers, there is now an online work in progress by Saad Sowayan at http://www.saadsowayan.com/articles/anthropology.html.

Here is The Table of Contents

Introduction
02 بداية الحياة على الأرض Begining of Life
03 أحافير الرئيسيات Primate Fossils
04 الرئيسيات المعاصرة Modern Primates
05 البشريات Hominids
06 الأسس البيولوجية للثقافة Biological Bases
07 الإيكولوجيا الطبيعية Natural Ecology
08 الإيكولوجيا الثقافية Cultural Ecology
09 النسق الاقتصادي Economic System
10 النسق الديني Religion

Dr. Sowayan, who has conducted ethnographic and linguistic research in Saudi Arabia and is the editor of a massive volume on Arabian folklore, has made available much of his academic work online at his main website, with sections in Arabic and English.

Art, Religion and History: The Case of Bahrain

Anthropology/Sociology, Art, Bahrain, Folklore and Proverbs, Islamic Rituals


Figure 1. A Replica of the head of Imam Husayn

by El-Sayed el-Aswad
University of Bahrain

Art, in its broad meaning encompassing performance and non-performance forms of expression, plays a significant part in Bahraini imagination and folk culture. The focus here, however, will be on the innovative aspects of Shi‘a vernacular art. Among the Shi‘ti people of Bahrain there has been a shift from traditional or old-fashioned styles of mourning and commemorating the tragic events of ‘Ashura, or the tenth of Muharram (the first month of Islamic calendar in which Imam Husayn, grandson of the prophet Muhammad, was martyred) to a modern way of expression reflected mostly in the art.


Figure 2. Imaginary of al-‘Abbas, the sibling of Imam Husain

During the first ten days of Muharram, colorful forms of calligraphy, iconography, replicas (tashihat), ritual and visual representations are presented and meticulously enacted in exhibitions and in the streets of Manama, the capital city of Bahrain, as well as in most of the villages with Shi‘a majorities. Continue reading Art, Religion and History: The Case of Bahrain →