Of Sand or Soil: Genealogy and Tribal Belonging in Saudi Arabia

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Why do tribal genealogies matter in modern-day Saudi Arabia What compels the strivers and climbers of the new Saudi Arabia to want to prove their authentic descent from one or another prestigious Arabian tribe Of Sand or Soil looks at how genealogy and tribal belonging have informed the lives of past and present inhabitants of Saudi Arabia and ho

Reviews

Runner-Up for the 2016 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize in Middle Eastern Studies "Samin has produced one of the best monographs on Saudi culture and society and their relationship with the state."--Jorg Matthias Determann, Comparative Islamic Studies "An outstanding addition to the literature of modern Saudi Arabia that also serves to put the whole contemporary analysis of retribalization into a much broader context. Samin successfully demonstrates that despite religious, political, and economic forces that diminished tribal institutions, cross-pressures countered those trends, and in the process a culture of genealogy combined with a bureaucratic genealogical rule of governance to lead Saudis to assert tribal descent ... and so establish their ancient roots in the Arabian Peninsula."--Calvin H. Allen, Jr., PhD, Middle East Media & Book Reviews "Of Sand or Soil is guaranteed to set one thinking... [I]t is a measure of the book's worth that it suggests several lines of inquiry. [Samin] is to be congratulated ... on a very well-written book, [and] ... to be commended for productive fieldwork [in Saudi Arabia] requiring moral stamina."--P. Dresch, American Historical Review "The detailed historical and archival work and the deep ethnographic research shine throughout the book... Of Sand or Soil is a welcome contribution to scholarship on Saudi Arabia, one that challenges the arguments of some of the most recent works in the field."--R. Bsheer, Arab Studies Journal "Samin's book ... forces us to see Saudi society with new eyes. It shatters many stereotypes abundant among people in the west and the Arab world about the kingdom and leads us to reconsider outdated anthropological myths... An indispensible tool for better understanding Saudi Arabia."--S. Maisel, SOAS Bulletin

Author Bio

Nadav Samin is visiting assistant professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College.