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In this provocative examination of collective identity in Jordan, Linda Layne challenges long-held Western assumptions that Arabs belong to easily recognizable corporate social groups. Who is a "true" Jordanian? Who is a "true" Bedouin? These questions, according to Layne, are examples of a kind of pigeonholing that has distorted the reality of Jordanian national politics. In developing an alternate approach, she shows that the fluid social identities of Jordan emerge from an ongoing dialogue among tribespeople, members of the intelligentsia, Hashemite rulers, and Western social scientists. Many commentators on social identity in the Middle East limit their studies to the village level, but Layne's goal is to discover how the identity-building processes of the locality and of the nation condition each other. She finds that the tribes create their own cultural "homes" through a dialogue with official nationalist rhetoric and Jordanian urbanites, while King Hussein, in turn, maintains the idea of the "homeland" in ways that are powerfully influenced by the tribespeople. The identities so formed resemble the shifting, irregular shapes of postmodernist land-scapes--but Hussein and the Jordanian people are also beginning to use a classically modernist linear narrative to describe themselves. Layne maintains, however, that even with this change Jordanian identities will remain resistant to all-or-nothing descriptions.

Bedouins --- Beduins --- Arabs --- Ethnology --- Nomads --- North Africans --- Ethnic identity. --- Jordan --- Giordania --- Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan --- Hashimite Kingdom of the Jordan --- Jordania --- Jordanien --- Mamlaka al-Urduniya al-Hashemiyah --- Mamlakah al-Urdunīyah al-Hāshimīyah --- Urdun --- Urdunn --- Yarden --- Transjordan --- Social life and customs. --- 1948 Arab–Israeli War. --- A Girl Like Her. --- Adoption. --- Adultery. --- Al-Aqsa Mosque. --- Algerian Civil War. --- American Enterprise Institute. --- Amman. --- Arab Cooperation Council. --- Arab Revolt. --- Arab nationalism. --- Arabs. --- Ariel Sharon. --- Bahá'í Faith. --- Ballot box. --- Barracks. --- Basseri. --- Bedouin. --- Capitalism. --- Circassians. --- Citizens (Spanish political party). --- Civil service. --- Clifford Geertz. --- Cultural Revolution. --- Dichotomy. --- Eastern world. --- Family honor. --- Fawaz. --- Feudalism. --- French Colonial. --- Green Revolution. --- Hashemites. --- Holism. --- Household. --- Human migration. --- Intelligentsia. --- John Bagot Glubb. --- Jordan Valley (Middle East). --- Jordan. --- Julian Jaynes. --- King of Syria. --- Kuwait. --- Legal practice. --- Majlis. --- Marshall Sahlins. --- Mattress. --- Middle East. --- Model village. --- Modernity. --- Mrs. --- Muslim world. --- National security. --- New Laws. --- Nuclear family. --- Of Education. --- One Unit. --- Palestinian refugee camps. --- Palestinian refugees. --- Palestinians. --- Political Man. --- Political alliance. --- Postmodernism. --- Prayer rug. --- Rashid Khalidi. --- Reasonable person. --- Refugee. --- Regency Council (Poland). --- Residence. --- Ritualization. --- Sally Falk Moore. --- Saudi Arabia. --- Sedentism. --- Segmentary lineage. --- Six-Day War. --- Slavery. --- Social anthropology. --- Social transformation. --- Sodomy. --- Sovereignty. --- Special Relationship. --- State formation. --- Suffrage. --- Surname. --- T. E. Lawrence. --- The Other Hand. --- Traditional society. --- Tribal Leadership. --- Tribal sovereignty in the United States. --- Tribalism. --- Tribe. --- United Arab Emirates. --- United States. --- V. --- Vegetable. --- Vernacular architecture. --- Voting age. --- Voting. --- Wadi Rum. --- Widad Kawar. --- Zionism.