This book examines how a particular historical conjuncture of amplified global interactions in the second half of the nineteenth century formed and transformed society, culture and notions of identity in the Red Sea port town of Massawa, in present-day Eritrea. By reconstructing the social, urban, religious and cultural history of a cosmopolitan community in a period of sweeping economic and social change this study shows how different forms of capital were converted and reconverted in the process of social integration, the construction of urban power and communal authority, as well as the definition of a new moral order. Adopting a strong comparative approach the book transgresses traditional epistemological paradigms that have governed our understanding of the region at large. The book offers a critique of ‘Area Studies’ as it has been conceptualized in the past and blurs the boundaries between ‘Africa’ and the ‘Middle East’, much as the fields of African and Middle Eastern History. Making use of a rich and wide variety of European, Arabic-language sources, and oral data, the book explores historical processes operating on Massawa between the local and the global.
See
http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=93164
and Amazon.com
Read comments. Write your own.
This book examines how a particular historical conjuncture of amplified global interactions in the second half of the nineteenth century formed and transformed society, culture...
myAfrica is an open resource. Most listings, such as this one, are editable by logged in users. Help build on the value of this resource by expanding existing listings.
Accommodation
Music
Please write a review of this book, if you have read it. Do not hesitate to be the first to write a review. It is as simple as typing in the space below.