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ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROAcHEs To SocAL CONTROL
IN IsLAc TuBA,t SocIEr :
A CRrrICAL REVIEW

By

ABDULLAH A. ATEEM

Asst. Po.f Arnthropolog‫ﻫ‬
lrniversity of Bahrainr

Abstract

An increasing preoccupation, since the early 198s, amongst postmodern anthropologisst
ith the textualiyt of anthropological ritings has resulted in decreasing theoretical arguments
on the form and practice of social control. This phenomenon has led, among other things, to a
rdeucde concern amongst the anthropologists of lslam ith the ay social control has been put
into operaiton itihn the diverse social and cultural contexts of the lslamie World. Meanihle
hte ay social control has been dealt ith in the field of anthropolog‫ﻫ‬cal inquiyr in this part of
hte orld had equally been affected. Departing from a specifie ethnograpihc problem in hte
Hajar region of southeastern Arabia, the Emirates, this paper aims at providing a criitcal revie
of ho diffreent anthropological approaches have revieed and examined the problem of
sioal conrtol and authority in lslamie rtibal societies.

lntroduction

lslam and rtibalism in the context of Middle Eastern socieyt and culutre hav
received, since the middle of tihs cenutry, considerable recogniiton in the
anthropolog‫ﻫ‬cal ritings, As a result of tihs recog‫ﻫ‬iiton, several arg‫ﻫ‬ments and
debates have developed for instance, since the mid-198s, around hte quesiton
hether an "anthropolog‫ ﻫ‬of [slam' or an "lslamic anthropolog‫ "ﻫ‬is better
representing and thus more fairly translating lslamic culutre and society.1 It is no
believed htat such anthropolog‫ﻫ‬cal ritings have been a result of several forsm of
interaciton hich too place in the recent ihstory of anthropology. It is orth looing
at some forms of these interacitosn so that e can see, later, the ind of impact that
htey had in the field of studying social conrtol and authoiryt in Islamic irtbal
socieites. One ifeld of studying social conrtol and authoriyt in lslaimc irtbal socieites.
One of these interacitosn is mainfested lucidly in the moral crisis ihch too place
amongst the young post-coloinal, anthropologists ho ere very criitcal of the
experience of their culutres: the West as coloinalist, the rihTd World as hte coloined.
Oher forms of interacitons also exihbit hte ciritcal stance ihch generated some of
hte ufel for the emergency of a posmtodern philosopihcal trend, ihch dominated hte
ifeld of humaniites and social sciences as scepitc] philosophy. Thus riters and
ihtners lie Foucault, Said and Derrida have dominated the scene: their noitons,
paritcularly the first to, of poer relaitosn and srtucutres have been over-celebratde,
and their emphasis on the relationship beteen hte riter hte anthropolog‫ﻫ‬st in oru
case and ihs subject the reader or the described culutres have made, for a hile,

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