Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban

Globalization of Research and International Standards of Ethics in Anthropology

Abstract: Ethics and anthropology have entered the era of globalization, and professional discourse about ethics can no longer be confined to a national or domestic dialogue. Anthropology must vigorously join the international dialogue and debate over globalization and the conduct of research across cultures; indeed it is the discipline most suited to command the high ground in this discourse. American anthropology historically has been more reactive than proactive in ethics, but cannot remain so as the nature and condition of research have fundamentally changed in a postcolonial world. Indigenous peoples, Third World researchers, international development workers in government and non‐government agencies, and other anthropologists outside of the U.S. are raising questions about international research that are generating new standards of conduct. Anthropology as a discipline and a profession must keep apace with these developments or it will lose ground in a crucial arena of global discourse.

Marxism and the Matriarchate: One-Hundred Years after the Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels is a seminal work for anthropology and ethnology, although this fact is still not recognized by Western social science. Of the many 19th century writers who were part of the nascent sciences of sociology and anthropology, Engels stands out for his formulations which introduced the historical materialist study of ancient society and were of sufficient magnitude that they enrich discussion of the subject one-hundred years later. Although some of the ethnographic facts which Engels had at his disposal have been modified, the strength of his theoretical formulations make Origin of the Family very much a contemporary rather than an historical work. Lewis Henry Morgan, whose ethnological investigation of North American Indians made him a more credible writer than others of the 19th century, attracted the attention of Marx and then Engels. Marx had read and abstracted selected works on the nature of primitive society and probably had some work on ancient society in gestation at the time of his death. Recommending Morgan to Engels, the latter took up the task of grafting onto Morgan’s ideas in Ancient Society analytical principles from the developing science of dialectical materialism. That historical association between Morgan and Engels shaped the formative period in the birth of anthropology as a science and established a Marxist tradition to which the discipline has been reacting ever since. The demolition of an original American thinker like Morgan by Franz Boas was a decisive blow which disrupted and effectively halted the development of a solid materialist tradition in American anthropology. It

Be Careful what you Ask for

The current Islamist government, ushered in by a military coup in 1989, declared that the Sudan must be governed by Islamic law or shari’a in accordance with what it called the Civilization Project. As expected, the personal status for Muslims laws, Ahwal Shakhsiyya , continued to be governed by shari’a as it has always been. However, the Sudanese society experienced unprecedented changes that are considered un-Islamic, and may be even punishable by law. In this paper two of those changes happened in the institution of marriage. This paper discusses two types of marriage, ‘Urfi and Misyar that are not part of the law, and traditionally unacceptable, and by law deemed by some to be illegal. Some scholars are seeking to normalize and may be legalize both types.

New Social Movements in Nubian Identity Among Nubians in Egypt, Sudan, and the United States

Nubia is the general name of the area in the Nile valley south of Aswan in Egypt at the first cataract on the Nile, extending into the northern Sudan to the third or fourth cataracts. Its dominant ethnic group, the Nubians, also occupy the southern portion of Egypt up to the first cataract at Aswan and elsewhere as a result of their migrations and resettlement following the dam construction. This is the land of the ancient kingdoms of Kush and the various small ancient states such as Yam and Irtet. English colonialists, besides exploiting the rich lands of the Nile for cotton production, removed prized examples of Nubian cultural heritage to the British Museum and permitted other institutions, such as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, to do the same.

Book reviews: The Islamic World

The Palestine Problem in International Law and World Order. W Thomas Mallison and Sally V Mallison London: Longman. 1986. 564pp. £36.00hb Prisoners of God: The Modern‐Day Conflict of Arab and Jew. David Smith. London: Quartet. 1987. 243pp. £12.95hb Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land. David K Shipler. London: Bloomsbury. 1987. 562pp. £17.95hb Tunisia: Crossroads of the Islamic and European Worlds. Kenneth J Perkins. Boulder, Colorado: Westview/London: Croom Helm. 1986. 192pp. n/p. Habib Bourguiba, Islam and the Creation of Tunisia. Norma Salem. London: Croom Helm. 1986. 270pp. £19.95hb Iraqi Politics 1921–41: The Interaction between Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy. Ahmad Abdul Razzaq Shikara London: LAAM. 1987. 227pp. £11.95pb Iraq since 1958: From Revolution to Dictatorship. Marion Farouk‐Sluglett and Peter Sluglett. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1987. 332pp. £29.95hb Iraq, the Gulf States and the War: A Changing Relationship 1980–1986 and Beyond. Gerd Nonneman. London: Ithaca Press...