Online/offline preservationists. The material engagement in Syrian cultural heritage between Facebook and offline life

This article follows the activities of a group of Syrian preservationists, that take place both in Facebook and offline. The virtual dimension of social media doesn’t entail the abandonment of the offline dimension of their activism. The latter often involves a struggle against the material changes of structures and the risks the use of forbidden materials (mainly concrete) entails in the heritage sites. The destructions provoked by the current war add to the causes that led Unesco to list the Damascus medina among the heritage sites at risk. The debate about safeguard and transformation of heritage shows the influential role of civil society in Syria and the existence of an area of criticism, admitted by the regime, though in a non-democratic Middle Eastern countr

The Production of Valuable Space: Gentrification of the Old City of Damascus as a Field of Social Practices, Representations, and Relations1

In this paper I will discuss the politics of recovery and revitalization of “the Old City” of Damascus, as part of spatial practices and discourses of the inhabitants. In Damascus, as with many global cities, exposure to the world-system is leading to a process of gentrification. The old city is being restored and transformed into a suitable area for dwelling and leisure that caters to the middle and upper classes who seek a “traditional atmosphere”. Different social actors are involved in a variety of transformations. These include: the protection of monuments, restoration of buildings, openings of restaurants, internet cafés, hotels, cultural and artistic centres, transformation of boroughs in locations for movies. In many cases the social actors involved in such transformations must confront the pre- gentrification inhabitants as they reinterpret space in different ways As the architects and engineers of the Mudīrīe al-Medīne al-Qadīme stress, Old Damascus' peculiar feature is to be a living area. Thus they stress the importance of traditional use of living space and work to avoid a clash between gentrification and the habits of dwellers. The paper discusses 1) the production of different ways of spatial representation and discourses about the space, carried out by different social actors living in the same district; 2) the malleability of the concept of traditions of built environment; 3) the encounter in a restoring site of different social worlds, to show that the lives of the social actors, even if local in their expressions, are important to understand the global processes, that are taking place across the Middle East, that objectify such ideas as history, historicity, tradition, typicalness, locality.

“NON FARLA DIFFICILE!”. IL METODO ABDUTTIVO, IL DISINCANTO E LO STUDIO ETNOGRAFICO DELLE RELIGIONI

Studying cultures, and in particular religions as cultural phenomena, entails the researcher’s decentralized and disenchanted (although not necessarily skeptical) gaze. Doing ethnographic research in cultural contexts different from the researchers’ ones (in this article I present examples of my fieldwork in Syria), the decentralization of the gaze is a paramount. Furthermore, in a long-term anthropological fieldwork experiential data often emerge that the researchers were not looking for; the abductive method consists in deepening the study of such unexpected data, possibly opening up new research paths

Libertà, dignità, autorità. Il processo rivoluzionario tunisino e l’attivismo islamico in una prospettiva politico-antropologica

The practical and theoretical elaboration of the concepts of democracy and pluralism, pursued by the Tunisian Islamic public, is an aspect of contemporary Islamic discursive traditions and is part of a broader project focused on the declination of a specific form of Tunisian Islamic modernity. I suggest a combined effort of the anthropological and political approaches to social and political activism, to analyze in a more complex way the dynamic interactions between Islamist and da‘wa movements in the MENA region. I refer to both these kinds of activism as the Tunisian Islamic public. I analyze in an anthropological perspective such concepts as pluralism, moderation, democracy. The interpretive paradigm allows to balance the experience- distant concepts of political-anthropological analysis with the experience- near concepts of Tunisian social actors involved in the revolutionary process: I tried to locate the analytical concept of democracy against the background of the ideological and practical tools of the protagonists of the revolutionary process. The sub-categories covered under the broader concept of democracy are closer to social actors’ own experience: I refer to such concepts as freedom, dignity, social justice, pluralism, toleration, governmentality, that are analyzed with reference to both their explicit formulation and implicit understandings by the individuals and groups involved in the revolutionary process. I interpret the quest for an Islamic understanding of such concepts, carried out by the Tunisian Islamic movements after the 2011 Revolution, as part of an authorizing discourse [Asad 1986] about the Tunisian specificity, aimed to legitimate the social and political commitment in the name of Islam. This discourse draws on the local interpretations of Islamic practices, on the work of modern and classical Islamic thinkers, and on the reasoning about democracy and human rights

Antropologia politica dell'Islam. Da'wa e jihad in Tunisia e nel Medio Oriente contemporaneo

L’antropologia culturale consente di osservare in modo specifico, attraverso i propri metodi e strumenti, il Medio Oriente contemporaneo e l’Islam. Questo libro affronta in chiave antropologica tematiche quali l’impegno politico-sociale in nome dell’Islam (il cosiddetto “islamismo”), il fondamentalismo, il jihad, le recenti rivoluzioni arabe. Esso apre alcune questioni: l’impegno politico-sociale in nome dell’Islam è un’attività politica o religiosa? Quali tradizioni scritturali o discorsive autorizzano tale impegno? Chi sono gli intellettuali che elaborano il quadro pratico-teorico nel quale si inscrive l’attività sociale e politica condotta sulla base dei valori islamici? L’autore prova a rispondere a tali domande a partire dall’esperienza etnografica svolta dall’autore tra gli attivisti dell’islamismo contemporaneo in Tunisia e altrove. Emerge una nuova prospettiva antropologica sull’Islam contemporaneo, nella quale la lotta politica (al-jihad) e l’attivismo sociale (ad-da‘wa) sono considerati pratiche collegate a specifiche interpretazioni delle tradizioni islamiche classiche e moderne, locali e transnazionali

La specificità tunisina. Egemonia politica e habitus dell’impegno nell’Islam pubblico contemporaneo

I interpret the pursuit of an Islamic understanding of ideas such as democracy, pluralism and freedom, carried out by the Tunisian Islamic movements after the 2011 revolution, as part of a discursive tradition (Asad 1986) about the “Tunisian specificity”. Such tradition entails the interpretation of Islamic sources – both classical and modern – by religious and secular authorities, with the aim to legitimate the social and political commitment in the name of Islam. The Tunisian specificity is a discourse that draws on the local interpretations of Islamic practices (such as Sufism and saints worship), on the work of modern Islamic thinkers, and on the reasoning about democracy and human rights, to construct a theoretical framework aimed at deepening the concepts of moderation, toleration, pluralism and political activity from an Islamic vantage point. My contribution is part of an ethnographic research pursued from 2012 to 2015 among Tunisian Islamic public. In my view, such a category covers both the Islamists (namely the actors engaged in movements and parties directly involved in the political arena) and the du‘at (the activist of civil society and pious associations, engaged in spreading the Islamic message “from below”). The observation of interrelationships between the two groups, and of the sharing of the same framework (the Tunisian specificity) and vocabulary (freedom, dignity, human rights, and the like), suggests that the sharp distinction between political and social activism inspired by Islamic ideals is to be blurred

Stato civile e cultura politica islamica. Una riflessione antropologica

A partire dal dibattito tra Clifford Geertz, Talal Asad e Ernest Gellner su tradizioni religiose, ethos e potere, l’articolo propone una riflessione sulle dinamiche politico-intellettuali che hanno portato alcuni movimenti islamici e secolari, in Medio Oriente, a formulare dei progetti di organizzazione sociale/istituzionale incentrati sul modello dello Stato civile. Il dibattito su questa forma di Stato è durato oltre un secolo ed è tornato al centro del discorso pubblico islamico dopo le rivoluzioni del 2010/2011. L’articolo indaga le circostanze storico-politiche e le relazioni di potere/autorità attraverso le quali il modello dello Stato civile è stato elaborato e riadattato dal pubblico islamico contemporaneo, in particolare in Egitto e in Tunisia

Bird Abundance and Diversity and the Impact of Oyster Reef Restoration on the Bird Community in Mosquito Lagoon, Florida, USA

Birds are often used as indicators for biodiversity and ecosystem health. While birds have been monitored in other parts of the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), there has been little research on birds in Mosquito Lagoon (ML, the northernmost portion of the IRL). This thesis first examines the abundance and diversity of birds in ML by using two years of photographic observations to assess seasonal variations and the use of various habitat features by specific bird taxa. Abundance and species richness were highest in winter, while evenness and Simpson\u27s diversity were highest in summer. Moreover, natural and artificial habitat features were differentially utilized by specific bird taxa. A second objective was to use monthly bird surveys for three years to assess the utilization of live, restored, and dead oyster reefs by birds and to determine how oyster reef restoration impacts the bird community in ML. Infaunal abundance was also monitored in the reef sediments, as infauna serve as prey for birds. Results indicated that while restored reefs had relatively low bird abundances, they had similar proportions of foraging birds and similar bird assemblages as live reefs. By 6 months post-restoration, infaunal abundances on restored reefs became similar to live reefs, indicating similarities in prey availability. Another goal was to explore the selection of certain dead reefs by nesting Least terns and American oystercatchers. Reefs on which nesting activity had previously been observed were characterized and compared to reefs where nesting was not previously observed. Nesting sites had taller mangroves, steeper slopes, higher elevations, more vegetative cover, and less live oyster cover than non-nesting sites. Overall, results indicate that live, restored, and dead reefs are all being utilized by birds in ML, and that a mosaic of reef types may be best for providing foraging, loafing, and nesting habitat for birds