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This article offers a re-framing  in the anthropology of performance of my earlier study on Zar-Bori rituals among Africans in the Ottoman Empire. The added value here is, in my view, within that interpretative framework.
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This is *not* a new publication, but a replacement for the author-typed PDF file that had been uploaded under this item. The version uploaded now is the actual chapter in the Ginio-Podeh volume in honor of Amnon Cohen, which will enable... more
This is *not* a new publication, but a replacement for the author-typed PDF file that had been uploaded under this item. The version uploaded now is the actual chapter in the Ginio-Podeh volume in honor of Amnon Cohen, which will enable citing actual pages for referencing.
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Comments on the latest discourse on modernities and how transitions and change are conceived and processed.
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This article explores the transition from enslavement to post-emancipation realities in the Muslim-majority societies of the Middle East and North Africa during the last stage of empire and the first phase of nation-building. The main... more
This article explores the transition from enslavement to post-emancipation realities in the Muslim-majority societies of the Middle  East and North Africa during the last stage of empire and the first phase of nation-building. The main argument is that within enslavement, there were gradations of bondage and servitude, not merely a dichotomy
between free and enslaved. The various social positions occupied by the enslaved are best understood as points on a continuum of social, economic, and cultural realities. In turn, these were reproduced after emancipation in the successor states that emerged following the  demise of the Ottoman and Qajar empires, the Sharifian state in Morocco, and the various principalities of the Arab/Persian Gulf. Hence, post-emancipation did not create equal citizenship for all freed persons, but rather the inequality within enslavement transitioned into the post-imperial societies of the Middle East and North Africa.
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Working from the case of Afro-Turks backwards, in this article I first deal with how reading the past affects actions in the present and the nature of the societies persons of African descent live in today. Is the way we construct... more
Working from the case of Afro-Turks backwards, in this article I first deal with how reading the past affects actions in the present and the nature of the societies persons of African descent live in today. Is the way we construct difference, or deal with racism, necessarily affects the possibility of having democracy in these societies? What right do historians--both on the inside and the outside--have to construct and reconstruct the past of African communities, define them as “diasporas,” and affect the present-day lives of the people whose past we study? The article concludes with a few comments on the question of African identities in the Ottoman Middle East and North Africa and successor states.
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This is a reprinted and re-formatted version of the article published in 2002 (see above). Looks better and easier to read, but NOT a new piece.
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The study of enslavement has become urgent over the last two decades. Social scientists, legal scholars, human rights activists, and historians, who study forms of enslavement in both modern and historical societies, have soughtand often... more
The study of enslavement has become urgent over the last two decades. Social scientists, legal scholars, human rights activists, and historians, who study forms of enslavement in both modern and historical societies, have soughtand often achievedcommon conceptual grounds to forge a new perspective that englobes historical and contemporary forms of slavery. What could certainly be termed a turn in the study of slavery has also intensified awareness of enslavement as a global phenomenon, inviting a comparative, trans-regional approach across time-space divides. But what does global enslavement mean? Does it mean that enslavement appears in most societies and periods, transcending spatial and temporal boundaries? Is it enough to broaden the range of areas and periods studied to earn the title "global"? Or does global mean that whenever and wherever enslavement existed, it had a universal essence that can be defined in terms and concepts valid for all its occurrences and manifestations? Should the study of global enslavement lead us to an ahistorical/metahistorical view of the subject? Or should we adopt a historical approach, taking into consideration change, diversity, fluidity, and differentiation? In other words, is enslavement constant and applicable to any region or period, an aggregate of various forms, processes, and narratives? Alternatively, are these really "either-or" questions, or can they be reconciled as "both"? These questions, which still occupy contemporary scholarship, gave rise to several theories and models that aim to understand the worldwide institutionalization of enslavement. Societies may share common practices of bondage and enslavement, but also diverge in their definitions of these phenomena. While the ways and means by which such societies acquired and enslaved humans were often relatively similar, the ways enslaved persons were exploited and treated, the ways they negotiated their condition, and the ways out of slavery were often historically different. Nevertheless, both the enslavement of people and their maintenance as enslaved over time always included the use of various degrees of violence. They connect and separate societies in applying economic and political powers and ideologies. The study of forced migration and human trafficking, as well as other features of enslavement, may bring different approaches, closer to the study of enslavement as a global phenomenon. Demand for unfree labor often generated forced migration, with its local and global economic, political, and cultural implications. Gender, origin/ethnicity/race, property, and domination also played a major role in the relationships formed in the framework of enslavement. These were shaped by both the interests of enslavers and the agency of the enslaved, by the political, religious, and legal practices of enslaving societies around the globe throughout history up to the present day.