Download A Tribal Order: Politics and Law in the Mountains of Yemen by Shelagh Weir PDF

By Shelagh Weir

A Tribal Order describes the politico-legal process of Jabal Razih, a distant massif in northern Yemen inhabited through farmers and investors. opposite to the preferred photograph of heart japanese tribes as warlike, lawless, and at all times against states, the tribes of Razih have good buildings of governance and complicated legislation and techniques for protecting order and resolving conflicts with no less than actual violence. Razihi leaders additionally traditionally cooperated with states, supplied the latter revered their customs, beliefs, and pursuits. Weir considers the program within the context of the rugged surroundings and effective agricultural economic system of Razih, and of centuries of continuing rule via Zaydi Muslim regimes and (latterly) the republican governments of Yemen. The publication is predicated on Weir's prolonged anthropological fieldwork on Jabal Razih, and on her precise learn of hundreds and hundreds of handwritten contracts and treaties between and among the tribes and rulers of R\azi\h. those files offer a desirable perception into tribal politics and legislations, in addition to state-tribe relatives, from the early 17th to the overdue 20th century. A Tribal Order is additionally enriched through case histories that vividly light up tribal practices. total, this surprisingly wide-ranging paintings offers an obtainable account of a impressive Arabian society via time.

Show description

Read Online or Download A Tribal Order: Politics and Law in the Mountains of Yemen (CMES Modern Middle East Series) PDF

Best politics books

Liberty's Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State

If there was a unifying subject of Barack Obama’s presidency, it's the inexorable development of the executive nation. Its enlargement has a development: First, extend federal powers past their constitutional limits. moment, delegate these powers to organisations and clear of elected politicians in Congress.

The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality

An excellent attack on our obsession with each distinction other than the one who particularly matters—the distinction among wealthy and poor

If there's something americans agree on, it's the worth of variety. Our organizations vie for slots within the variety best 50, our universities brag approximately minority recruiting, and each month is Somebody's background Month. yet during this provocative new ebook, Walter Benn Michaels argues that our enthusiastic social gathering of "difference" mask our overlook of America's tremendous and growing to be financial divide. Affirmative motion in colleges has no longer made them extra open, it's simply assured that the wealthy teenagers are available in the ideal shades. variety education within the office has no longer raised anybody's wage (except possibly the variety trainers') however it has assured that once your task is outsourced, your tradition should be taken care of with respect.

With lacerating prose and exhilarating wit, Michaels takes at the many manifestations of our devotion to variety, from businesses apologizing for slavery, to a school president explaining why there aren't extra girls math professors, to the codes of behavior within the new "humane organizations. " taking a look at the books we learn, the television indicates we watch, and the complaints we carry, Michaels indicates that range has develop into everyone's sacred cow accurately since it deals a fake imaginative and prescient of social justice, person who comfortably charges us not anything. the difficulty with range urges us to begin puzzling over genuine justice, approximately equality rather than range. Attacking either the best and the left, it will likely be the main debatable political publication of the year.

See all Product Description

Transforming the Latin American Automobile Industry: Union, Workers, and the Politics of Restructuring (Perspectives on Latin America and the Caribbean)

This learn seems to be at union responses to the adjustments within the Latin American automobile within the final 15 years. It considers the impression of the shift in the direction of export construction and nearby integration, and the impact of political adjustments on union reponses.

Extra info for A Tribal Order: Politics and Law in the Mountains of Yemen (CMES Modern Middle East Series)

Example text

Indb 19 11/27/06 10:56:25 AM The Tribal System pearance, flavor, and mildly stimulating effects—and consequently their value. ¯ı qa¯t was traded only to the plateau and the Tiha¯mah; but afterward it could be marketed as far as Hodeidah and even Sanaa. Improvements in transportation coincided with a huge nationwide increase in demand. After the great hike in oil prices in 1973–74, Yemeni migrants earned high wages in Saudi Arabia, which pushed up Yemeni wages. This new prosperity caused an explosion of consumerism, including a national efflorescence in qa¯t consumption.

A¯ r Hamda¯ n (Bak¯ı l) Western mountains Eastern mountains Plateau Eastern desert Uqa¯ rib Foothills J. 3 Cross-section through the northern highlands of Yemen, showing rainfall pends, and tell of herculean competitions between legendary terrace-builders who hewed the stones, built the retaining walls, and lugged the infill earth from the lower slopes. Terraces demand constant toil and vigilance. They can become waterlogged during storms, causing breaches in walls and earth-falls onto lower terraces; and violent floods (sing.

A¯, the religious Feast of Sacrifice. Laborers (sing. sha¯qı¯ ) are hired for short-term labor needs, such as for ploughing, picking coffee (December–February), and harvesting and packing qa¯t (all year round), the daily wage being determined by the going rate and the worker’s skills. There is no evidence that sharecroppers or wage laborers ever constituted a dependent and subservient economic or social class in Ra¯zih. indb 33 11/27/06 10:56:30 AM The Tribal System in Ra¯zih. to being an agricultural tenant; in fact landowners are often also sharı¯ks or sha¯qı¯s, typically working a neighbor’s terraces as well as their own.

Download PDF sample

Rated 4.40 of 5 – based on 16 votes