Review by Choice Review
This outstanding ethnography of contemporary urban Middle Eastern life focuses on Hezbollah young adults, about whom people are generally misinformed, an effort of critical value to scholars of religion and politics as well as anthropologists. Deeb (anthropology, Scripps College) and Harb (urban studies and politics, American Univ. of Beirut), who have published previously on Beirut Shi'ites, combine participant observation, interviews, and surveys in exploring leisure culture and cafe life in a neighborhood largely inhabited by lower-middle-class Hezbollah. Casual dining, flirting, and public physical contact (the latter practice among committed couples, mainly) are striking departures from normative traditional Islamic pietism. While many young informants considered themselves pious, most avail themselves of a more liberal interpretation of Shari'a law regarding modesty, public cross-gender contact, and intimacy. The authors brilliantly illustrate the variety and complexity of moral choice, ethnic insularity, and worldliness with respect to other neighborhoods and populations. This stress on individual choice differentiates Lebanese Shi'ism from its more authoritarian Iranian counterpart. An emerging, sophisticated acceptance of alternative lifestyle choices while committed to traditional values and behavior bodes well for the possible future social integration of diverse populations in a nation-state struggling to emerge. Engagingly written. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. L. D. Loeb emeritus, University of Utah
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
