Power, Sect and State in Syria: The Politics of Marriage and Identity amongst the Druze

(Hardback)

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The Syrian state's rhetoric of Arab nationalism left little room for the official recognition of minority identities in pre-war Syria. Yet in practice, the state continually engaged with the Druze and other minorities to reinforce its legitimacy, often through cultural policy. Uncovering this neglected aspect of pre-war Syrian politics, Kastrinou explores the cultural politics of marriage in Syria, primarily among the Druze, to reveal how practical rituals of marriage inform sectarian and national identity formation.Challenging the assumed inherence of sectarianism and Druze endogamy, the book provides an historical and ethnographic account of political power and its relation to social control in Syria. It demonstrates the centrality of the body to Druze cosmology and how ritual performances of birth, marriage and death maintain and negotiate sectarian cohesion. Connecting these struggles to national and international politics, Kastrinou examines how both the Syrian government and the European Union have sponsored marriage-themed dance performances in Syria, each leveraging its cultural importance to legitimise their own policy goals.
The book establishes marriage as a pervasive idiom for the construction of collective identity in Syria, which is appropriated by individuals, sects, states and intergovernmental organizations alike. Its conclusions are relevant to scholars of Middle East studies, sectarianism, anthropology and politics.

Reviews

This is a wonderfully warm and evocative ethnography of a Druze community in a suburb of Damascus. Focusing specifically on acts of marriage, both as practiced in the community and as staged through state-sponsored cultural festivities, Kastrinou brings to life the formation and dynamics of power relations within and between the Druze religious community, the state, artists and intellectuals. This is a book of immense importance, bringing together anthropological concepts of cultural intimacy, kinship theories, and nuptial power relations as a form of governmentality. It makes a powerful contribution to our understanding of the political economy of social identities. -- Dawn Chatty, Professor Emerita of Anthropology and Forced Migration, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, UK
Maria Kastrinou's elegant and sophisticated ethnography provides a moving account of daily life and philosophy within a Syrian Druze community during the last years of peace before the current civil war. -- -- Professor Robert H. Layton, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, UK
The book Power, Sect and State in Syria: The Politics of Marriage and Identity amongst the Druze constitutes an exceptional work. It offers one of the few elaborated ethnographic studies of the Druze community in Syria. * Druze Studies Journal *

Author Bio

A. Maria A. Kastrinou is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at Brunel University London. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from Durham University and has conducted long-term fieldwork in Syria. Her research has been published in the journals History and Anthropology and Mediterranean Politics.