An Enchanted Modern

by Deeb, Lara

• ISBN13: 9780691124216
• ISBN10: 0691124213
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-27
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Based on two years of ethnographic research in the southern suburbs of Beirut,An Enchanted Moderndemonstrates that Islam and modernity are not merely compatible, but actually go hand-in-hand. This eloquent ethnographic portrayal of an Islamic community articulates how an alternative modernity, and specifically an enchanted modernity, may be constructed by Shi'I Muslims who consider themselves simultaneously deeply modern, cosmopolitan, and pious. In this depiction of a Shi'I Muslim community in Beirut, Deeb examines the ways that individual and collective expressions and understandings of piety have been debated, contested, and reformulated. Women take center stage in this process, a result of their visibility both within the community, and in relation to Western ideas that link the status of women to modernity. By emphasizing the ways notions of modernity and piety are lived, debated, and shaped by "everyday Islamists," this book underscores the inseparability of piety and politics in the lives of pious Muslims.

Author Biography

Lara Deeb is a cultural anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Women's Studies at the University of California, Irvine

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Note on Language	xi
Part One: Encounters, Approaches, Spaces, Moments
Introduction Pious and/as/is Modern	3	(39)
Al-Dahiyya: Sight, Sound, Season	42	(25)
From Marginalization to Institutionalization	67	(32)
Part Two: Living an Enchanted Modern
The Visibility of Religion in Daily Life	99	(30)
Ashura: Authentication and Sacrifice	129	(36)
Community Commitment	165	(39)
Public Piety as Women's Jihad	204	(16)
The Pious Modern Ideal and Its Gaps	220	(13)
Glossary	233	(2)
References	235	(16)
Index	251