“This kind of work needs more deliberation in the academic world and it is a delight for practitioners who are interested in radicalising the discipline and practice of anthropology. Since the book eschews technical language of the specialist, it is equally accessible to the nonspecialist reader.” (Journal of Intercultural Studies, 1 January 2015)
“The book is written in an engaging and highly accessible manner. Although it would have benefited from a deeper differentiated discussion of ‘cultural dignity’ and what it means in this world that Nader paints, Culture and dignity is a thought-provoking exercise in the kind of connections we need to make for an anthropology committed to a more honest and robust knowledge of the Middle East and the world.” (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1 January 2014)
“Drawing from an eclectic sample of literature dealing with the global connections between the Middle East and the West, the author achieves a much needed – and very timely – intellectual ‘check-up’ and warns us against cultural framings that serve to side-line serious explorations of the roots and nature of human suffering. It is crucial for all those of us who are genuinely concerned with peace to liberate our imaginations from the myths and stereotypes that work to divide us.” (Studies in Ethnicity And Nationalism, 15 October 2013)
“The collection reflects the many lasting contributions Nader has made to understanding and improving the human condition. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries.” (Choice, 1 July 2013)
“Laura Nader is an intellectual national treasure. Culture and Dignity is an important synthesis of anthropological theory and practice. Laura Nader shows how ethnography transforms would be observers and subjects into active participants in larger processes and power relations. From critiques of corporate fundamentalism to inverting Western notions of the control of women in the Middle East, Nader’s brilliant analysis shows the promise of anthropology to break through dominant Western narratives. Culture and Dignity is a vital and timely work that should be read by all interested in cutting through the cultural fog enshrouding policy discussions of corporatism, building peace in the Middle East, and human rights issues.”
– David H. Price, author of the books Weaponizing Anthropology and Anthropological Intelligence
“It is the best book I have read that deconstructs the myths of the East/West binary and brings much needed clarity into the blurred and complex borders that ‘separate’ the two.”
– George Saliba, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science, Columbia University
“In Culture and Dignity, Laura Nader poses a challenge to her colleagues in the field of cultural anthropology, and the rest of us, to shed our hubris and bias and see the world and ourselves with new eyes. Nader’s work is ambitious. And it succeeds. Not since Edward Said’s Orientalism have I read a work with the same potential to transform an entire discipline. In one reading, I came to a new understanding of the role of family, of the ‘women’s rights’ movement, of religious fundamentalism, and of my own political work.”
– James J. Zogby, The Arab American Institute
“These essays by Laura Nader–on law, nonviolence, terrorism, women’s status, the Middle Eastern culture–are passionate arguments against ‘the hypocrisy of our age.’ An anthropologist with decades of fieldwork experience, Nader challenges with great intellectual rigor and political courage the pieties of current Western hegemonic thought with consequences that are breathtaking.”
– Joseba Zulaika, University of Nevada
“This book of challenging, intelligent, and provocative essays on a variety of topics can be read with great profit by students, colleagues, and a general public. It made me think in new ways about the role of anthropology and many social and cultural questions, including the position of women, on a comparative world scale, as I expected from such a deservedly distinguished writer.”
– Nikki Keddie, University of California, Los Angeles
From the Inside Flap
Culture and Dignity explores the roots of the complex connections between the East and the West. Laura Nader uses ethnography to differentiate between the stereotype and reality of East-West relations and Arab documents, from the Crusades as well as contemporary Arab ethnography, to deconstruct the filters through which we see each other. By examining historical exchanges between East and West, Nader reveals how privileging difference has often led to violence and desensitization. In her vivid examples from history as well as analysis of ongoing events, she delineates the myriad indignities and false assumptions that surround Western dealings with Arabs and Muslims.
This highly readable treatise from an influential voice in contemporary anthropology is based on the premise that a look in the mirror is essential for understanding what is going on today – the fundamentalisms we share – religious, economic, and political – dignity – theirs and ours. Culture and Dignity offers more than a half-century of personal and professional experience in presenting Middle Eastern and Western perspectives on one another, and insights into relationships between East and West into the twenty-first century.
From the Back Cover
Culture and Dignity explores the roots of the complex connections between the East and the West. Laura Nader uses ethnography to differentiate between the stereotype and reality of East-West relations and Arab documents, from the Crusades as well as contemporary Arab ethnography, to deconstruct the filters through which we see each other. By examining historical exchanges between East and West, Nader reveals how privileging difference has often led to violence and desensitization. In her vivid examples from history as well as analysis of ongoing events, she delineates the myriad indignities and false assumptions that surround Western dealings with Arabs and Muslims.
This highly readable treatise from an influential voice in contemporary anthropology is based on the premise that a look in the mirror is essential for understanding what is going on today – the fundamentalisms we share – religious, economic, and political – dignity – theirs and ours. Culture and Dignity offers more than a half-century of personal and professional experience in presenting Middle Eastern and Western perspectives on one another, and insights into relationships between East and West into the twenty-first century.
About the Author
Laura Nader is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. An influential voice in contemporary anthropology, Laura Nader’s books include Naked Science: Anthropological Inquiry into Boundaries, Power and Knowledge (1996), The Life of the Law (2002), and, with Ugo Mattei, Plunder–When the Rule of Law is Illegal (2008).
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