Master and Disciple : The Cultural Foundations of Moroccan Authoritarianism.

Written by a Moroccan anthropologist currently teaching at Princeton University, Hammoudi's book is a sophisticated, complex analysis of the political culture of precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial rule in Morocco, with implications for other Arab and Muslim societies. In this cultural history, Hammoudi asks how one accounts for the prevalence of authoritarian political systems in Arab societies, and what the constraints are against the development of a civil society. Based on ethnographic and historical research, the study begins with a theoretical preface and then examines the connection of political domination and submission to such cultural phenomena as the sufi master/disciple relationship (Islamic mysticism), gift exchange, rites of passage and initiation, social ambivalence, and gender reversal. The book was translated from the French. It contains detailed, useful notes and bibliographic citations. Graduate, faculty. L. Beck Washington University