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Bedouin “abjection”: World heritage, worldliness, and worthiness at the margins of Arabia
Article first published online: 2 MAY 2011
DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01310.x
© 2011 by the American Anthropological Association
Additional Information
How to Cite
PEUTZ, N. (2011), Bedouin “abjection”: World heritage, worldliness, and worthiness at the margins of Arabia. American Ethnologist, 38: 338–360. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01310.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 2 MAY 2011
- Article first published online: 2 MAY 2011
- accepted October 25, 2010 , final version submitted November 16, 2010
- Abstract
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Keywords:
- [abjection;
- World Heritage;
- global hierarchy of value;
- Bedouin;
- Yemen;
- Soqotra Archipelago]
ABSTRACT
In Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, during the years immediately preceding and following its inscription in 2008 as a UNESCO World Heritage site—and at a time when “Bedouinness” in much of the Arab world had been or was being elevated to a marketable heritage—Soqotran pastoralists spoke frequently of being Bedouin as a form of categorical abjection. Examining the work of these iterations, I argue that “Bedouin abjection” is a form of dialogic critique of the “global hierarchy of value” and an ironic assessment of the Soqotran pastoral present. I further assert that anthropologists must be attentive to the universal resonances of these abject articulations.