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Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons™

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American University in Cairo

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Articles 31 - 60 of 77

Full-Text Articles in Social and Cultural Anthropology

Navigating The Cairene Table: Food And Family Between What Is Ideal And What Is Real, Iman Afify Jun 2022

Navigating The Cairene Table: Food And Family Between What Is Ideal And What Is Real, Iman Afify

Theses and Dissertations

Our daily encounters with food, especially during our childhood, play a crucial role in shaping and informing our identity and our habitus. In this research, by using multimodal and auto ethnography, I argue that due to the guiding path that our senses carve for us, we make sense and contextualise our surroundings through our senses, and not only the five senses of vision, smell, taste, hearing, and touch, but also through our inner senses of time and temporality, and how time and memory play an important role in the registration of our surroundings through our bodies and senses. I am …


Inhabiting Suspension: Neoliberalism And The Public Servants In Ismailia's Radio Canal, Mayar Ibrahim Feb 2022

Inhabiting Suspension: Neoliberalism And The Public Servants In Ismailia's Radio Canal, Mayar Ibrahim

Theses and Dissertations

To be a public servant in 2021 is to endure many sociopolitical and financial hardships as well as many stereotypes. Between living in dire straits and lacking any motive to work, the public servants and their behavior are almost always rendered indolent. Yet, this ambiguous/all-inclusive category needs to be pinned down, shaped in a sociopolitical landscape in which change is analyzed, documented, and conveyed. In the journey of uncovering what it is like to be working in a service governmental institution, Radio Canal in Ismailia allowed me to delve into a segment of the public servant category in a moment …


“No Masses Without Muslims’ Approval” The Crisis Of Building And Restoring Churches In Egypt: Three Case Studies From El-Minya Governorate, Sara Shaltout Feb 2022

“No Masses Without Muslims’ Approval” The Crisis Of Building And Restoring Churches In Egypt: Three Case Studies From El-Minya Governorate, Sara Shaltout

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined the crisis of building and renovating churches in Egypt in the light of the Church-state relation. I focused on three case studies in the El-Minya governorate that includes the largest Christian concentration in the Middle East to shed light on the existing difficulties that face Christians there regarding building a house of worship. The first case study, "church No 1", was demolished due to political conflict between Islamists and the state after the Rabaa massacre in 2013. In comparison, church No 2 asserts that Muslims' approval is a prerequisite for Christians' prayers. In addition to church No …


The Social World(S) Of The Scooter: Two-Wheeled Mobilities In Cairo And Alexandria, Ahmed El Serougui Jan 2022

The Social World(S) Of The Scooter: Two-Wheeled Mobilities In Cairo And Alexandria, Ahmed El Serougui

Theses and Dissertations

My research project looks at the scooter as a particular type of two-wheeled motorcycle, which has shot into prominence as a specific mode of transportation used by middle class women and men in the past few years and has been notably visible in prominent Egyptian cities. This research is based on a multi-sited ethnography in Alexandria and Cairo, tracing the scooter through the urban landscape in time and space, addressing first questions related to navigating the city in times of pandemic and what kind of theory could be produced from these ordinary cities in such an extraordinary time.

This research …


Organization Of Women And Empowerment: Sudanese Women's Groups In Cairo, Regina Poni Jacob Jan 2022

Organization Of Women And Empowerment: Sudanese Women's Groups In Cairo, Regina Poni Jacob

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Images Of Cairo And Its People As Seen By Women Sojourners Of The 19th Century (1829-1892), Azza Abbas El Rakhawy Jan 2022

Images Of Cairo And Its People As Seen By Women Sojourners Of The 19th Century (1829-1892), Azza Abbas El Rakhawy

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


The Concept Of Ibn Al-Balad, Sawsan Messiri Dec 2021

The Concept Of Ibn Al-Balad, Sawsan Messiri

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


The Sojourner As Stranger: A Phenomenological Investigation, Delores Janet Maronpot Dec 2021

The Sojourner As Stranger: A Phenomenological Investigation, Delores Janet Maronpot

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Embodying The Everyday Practices Of Urban Water: The Discourse Of Water Scarcity And Women's Subjectivities In Amman, Jordan, Katrin Masharqa Nov 2021

Embodying The Everyday Practices Of Urban Water: The Discourse Of Water Scarcity And Women's Subjectivities In Amman, Jordan, Katrin Masharqa

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Making Yourself At Al-Dar: On Islamic Education, Social Imaginations, And Affective Possibilities, Alia Amr Amin Shaddad Oct 2021

Making Yourself At Al-Dar: On Islamic Education, Social Imaginations, And Affective Possibilities, Alia Amr Amin Shaddad

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the Dar as an alternative space of knowledge, and unravels how its different contexts and rhythms allow us to imagine what that alternative means in the everyday. In order to do so, this thesis unpacks questions of space, time, subjectivity, and potential. I look at the ways in which this Dar is constituted as a space through its relations with other spaces and by engaging questions of temporality. By doing so, this thesis maps this space to make clear what and how it is, and highlights the historical and geographical context it exists in. This also includes …


The Banality Of Corporate Evil, Amina Dessouki Sep 2021

The Banality Of Corporate Evil, Amina Dessouki

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis critiques the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) through tracing the multiple dynamics between a multinational corporation and a development consultancy working on a recycling project in collaboration with the Zabaleen in Mansheyet Nasser, Egypt. The thesis looks at the ways in which actors negotiate their different positions, the harmonies and discordances that unfold through various agendas coming together, the silences produced, and the ways in which structural violence is intensified under the guise of development. The thesis contrasts the detached efforts of corporate workers and development consultants with the lives of the zabaleen, who live in a …


Meanings Of Mindfulness And Spiritual Awakening: Affliction And Holistic Healing In Contemporary Cairo, Sohayla El Fakahany May 2021

Meanings Of Mindfulness And Spiritual Awakening: Affliction And Holistic Healing In Contemporary Cairo, Sohayla El Fakahany

Theses and Dissertations

In contemporary Cairo, people turn to various modes of spiritual, alternative, and complementary healing. Some are rooted in formal religious traditions, and others are inspired by a new globalized form of holistic healing such as yoga or meditation. What makes these practices more controversial than spiritual healing practices like el-Zar or el-Hadra is the exchange of money for the promise of healing or foreknowledge. Spiritual healing is often deemed “charlatanistic” by religious exclusivists. This entanglement of the practices with religion creates a threat because it provides an alternative to the modes of religiosity supplied by the main hegemonic Egyptian religious …


Executive Summary- Social Protection In Egypt: Mitigating The Socio-Economic Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Vulnerable Employment, Dina Makram-Ebeid, Amr Adly, Nadine Sika, Hania M Sholkamy, Samer Atallah Jan 2021

Executive Summary- Social Protection In Egypt: Mitigating The Socio-Economic Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Vulnerable Employment, Dina Makram-Ebeid, Amr Adly, Nadine Sika, Hania M Sholkamy, Samer Atallah

Faculty Journal Articles

This is the executive summary of an interdisciplinary project between the fields of development economics, political economy, labor sociology, development anthropology and public health. It reviews the social protection available to vulnerable employees and their households in Egypt and suggests ways to adapt them in light of the COVID 19 pandemic. The research focuses on four areas a) employment security b) social assistance c) health insurance d) gendered mitigations. The project will map the impact of the crisis on vulnerable employees and their households and propose policy interventions to alleviate the socio-economic effects of the pandemic through the publication of …


Journeys Of Middle-Class Syrian Women To And In Berlin: Modes Of Subjectivity, Possibilities And Becoming, Randa Adnan Bashlah Jan 2021

Journeys Of Middle-Class Syrian Women To And In Berlin: Modes Of Subjectivity, Possibilities And Becoming, Randa Adnan Bashlah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an invitation to dive into the possibilities that emerge in the multiple stages of displacement journeys of a group of diverse Syrian women from a middle-class background, who happen to live in Berlin today, and learn about the displaced bodies' experiences from a personal scale. By capturing the journeys' nuances and trajectories, this study demonstrates how the mobile subjects interact differently and create different attachments with different power structures in the various modes which emerge through the journeys' different spatial and chronological stages. Looking at how displacement adds layers of complexity to the social's messiness and diversity, …


The Culture Police: Manning The Barricades Of Allowable Art And Culture, Ramy Aly Jan 2021

The Culture Police: Manning The Barricades Of Allowable Art And Culture, Ramy Aly

Faculty Book Chapters

In this chapter I look at the history and ontology of censorship in Egypt from the Monarchical era to the present. I focus on the post-1952 era and how a tutelary state culture has been deployed as part of a broader cultural militarism. The chapter also covers the legislative architecture that has ensured a stranglehold on the part of syndicates and the creation of a broad range of crimes associated with art and culture production and exhibition.


To "Make Life In Living It": The Everyday Among Elderly Upper-Class Egyptian Housewives, Hala Osman Jun 2008

To "Make Life In Living It": The Everyday Among Elderly Upper-Class Egyptian Housewives, Hala Osman

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Sacralizing National Identity In Egypt, Hind Fatfat Jun 2007

Sacralizing National Identity In Egypt, Hind Fatfat

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Women, Power And Position Within The Household Economy, Mamdouh Kamal Hakim Jun 2003

Women, Power And Position Within The Household Economy, Mamdouh Kamal Hakim

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Aragi:An Ethnography Of Sudanese Displacement, Bjorn Curley Feb 2003

Aragi:An Ethnography Of Sudanese Displacement, Bjorn Curley

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Social Orientalism, Daniel P Reany Feb 2003

Social Orientalism, Daniel P Reany

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Change Among Bedouins: An Exploratory Study In El-Hammam, Egypt, Neveen Gorgy Dawoud Azmy Jun 2001

Change Among Bedouins: An Exploratory Study In El-Hammam, Egypt, Neveen Gorgy Dawoud Azmy

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This research was triggered by an interest in examining the changes that took place in Bedouin communities, especially when it comes in the framework of a development process. The existing writings on this topic are divided into two camps: one maintains that change within Bedouin communities was very minimal, and to a great extent inconsequential, whereas, the other argues that changes therein were quite considerable. This thesis, through examining the local Awlad 'Ali community of el­Hammam, holds the latter view. Thus, the research traces the recent changes in their area and compares and contrasts the changes that their society has …


MusḥẠF As An Object, Natalia Kasprzak May 2001

MusḥẠF As An Object, Natalia Kasprzak

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Introduction: The New Arab Family, Nicholas S. Hopkins Jan 2001

Introduction: The New Arab Family, Nicholas S. Hopkins

Faculty Book Chapters

This volume represents revised versions of a collection of papers presented at Cairo Papers Ninth Annual Symposium on ''The New Arab Family,'' held in May 2000. Marriage, divorce, and related topics were center stage, particularly in the demographic papers. Another focus was to combine two very different approaches to the study of the family -- on the one hand demographic, and on the other broadly sociological or anthropological, or as some would say, psychodynamic, that is to say focusing on dyadic or multi-member networks of relationships within the family. Some of these papers in turn focused on ''agency,'' the ways …


Change In The Strategic Culture Of Israel, Nanice Mostafa Khalil Dec 2000

Change In The Strategic Culture Of Israel, Nanice Mostafa Khalil

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Islamic Associations In Cairo, Manal Abdel Salam Badawy Jun 1999

Islamic Associations In Cairo, Manal Abdel Salam Badawy

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Culture, Creativity & Politics In Egypt (1939-1952), Omneya Abdel Basset El Naggar May 1998

Culture, Creativity & Politics In Egypt (1939-1952), Omneya Abdel Basset El Naggar

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Class, Family, And Power In An Egyptian Village, Samer El Karanshawy Apr 1997

Class, Family, And Power In An Egyptian Village, Samer El Karanshawy

Faculty Books

This investigation of the intricate interplay of family, status, and occupation in an Egyptian village of the Delta in the context of elections for representatives to Egypt's national parliament provides a grass-roots view of Egyptian politics.


Expatriate Patterns Of Cultural Adaptation, Norma Westurn Mar 1996

Expatriate Patterns Of Cultural Adaptation, Norma Westurn

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Community Organization And Development Among The Zabbalin Of Muqattam, Elena Volpi Jan 1996

Community Organization And Development Among The Zabbalin Of Muqattam, Elena Volpi

Faculty Book Chapters

Two studies of the informal garbage collectors' community at the base of the Muqattam Hills in Cairo explore and comment on the impact of an institution-building program on leadership and participation and the impact of development programs on the women of the settlement.


Coping With Displacement Among The Sudanese Community In Egypt, Hwiada Mahmoud Abu Baker Jan 1995

Coping With Displacement Among The Sudanese Community In Egypt, Hwiada Mahmoud Abu Baker

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.