Worldviews: An Anthropological Perspective

This article does not claim that all Egyptian children view the world identically, but rather confirms certain significant underlying principles upon which their worldviews are constructed. The polarities of local-Global North and South are reconstituted through children’s narratives into flexible and positive attitudes implicit in their activities/worldviews.

This is review of Religion and Folk Cosmology (in Arabic)

This book introduces the concepts of worldviews/cosmologies of Muslims, explaining that the different types of worldviews are not constructed solely by religious scholars or intellectual elite, but are latent in Islamic tradition, embedded in popular imagination, and triggered through people's everyday interaction in various countries and communities. He draws from a number of sources including in-depth interviews and participant observation as well as government documents and oral history. Through the perspectives of ethno-cosmology, emic interpretation of sacred tradition, modernity, folklore, geography, dream, imagination, hybridity, and identity transformation, he examines how culturally and religiously constructed images of the world influence the daily actions of people in various Muslim communities. The worldviews of Sunnis, Shi'as, and Sufis are covered in turn, and Muslims in the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, and suburban Detroit are the focus. el-Aswad also discusses the effects of Western attempts at imposing its essentially secular worldview through the process of globalization and how cyberspace has promoted connectivity among Muslim communities and, especially in the United States, opened up unlimited options and new possibilities. The book explores the dynamic relationships between Muslim worldviews and sociocultural practices of Muslim communities in various geographic locations. The significance of religion in a materialistically oriented and globally dominant and changing world has been a nexus of current debates in anthropological and sociological circles. It is also apparent that there is an imperative motivation for why Islamic discourses gradually dominate contemporary global and local events. At the same time, one of the most important aspects of globalization4 has been the spread of religious networks, virtual and real, that perpetuate the connectivity of religious and cosmological beliefs. By providing a wealth of historical, geographic, and spatial accounts of Muslim worldviews, this book seeks to contribute significant insights to the scholarship of Islam and Muslim societies as well as to question derogatory misconceptions of non-Muslim societies toward Muslims and vice versa.

The rapid acquisition of oil wealth has made the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven emirates established in 1971, the fastest growing Arab Gulf state in terms of economic transformation and communication technology. The seven emirates (ruled by emirs) are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. Although the economic transformation of Emirati society has been investigated, the impact of communication technology on social networking among Emirati people is scant. Networking in terms of electronic communications, transnational travel, and institutional affiliations and ideas has had a major impact on the evolution of the infrastructure of the Emirates since the 1970s. Social networking Websites, which have more than 1.7 million members within the Emirates, is becoming popular. According to a World Economic Forum report, the Emir-ates leads the Arab world in the adoption of information and communication technology, and expenditures on information technology and communications hardware for schools, hospitals, and other civil projects was expected to total about $3.3 billion between 2008 and 2011. A large majority of Emirati customers are actively seeking and searching product information online and through social media platforms. They strive to keep abreast of rapid changes in technological advances, especially with regard to the use of the Internet, as an effective means of learning and communication. Embracing New Forms of Networking Social networks encompass social relationships such as connections between friends and discussion forums. The expansion of electronic technology has caused a growth of interpersonal contacts among Emirati nationals due to the low cost and pervasive availability of e-mailing, online chatting, mobile phoning, short message services (SMS) as well as other means of electronic social networking. Social networking Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube are frequently used by Emirati people. Both men and women in the Emir-ates have positive perceptions toward the Internet, but men tend to have more constructive perceptions than women, especially in the domains of economic or scientific information and social connections with relatives and friends. Also, men spend more time than women in using these social networks. For instance, Emirati women, both married and unmarried, refrained from using the Internet and mobile phones in the 1990s for fear of being accused of misconduct. However, since the early 2000s, they have gradually started to use the Internet and mobile phones with such frequency that now many Emirati women enjoy owning more than one computer or cell phone. In the Emirates there is an acute juxtaposition of the local and global, indigenous and imported, traditional and modern, and idealistic and pragmatic. New technologies are changing the nature of communication and creating unprecedented forms of virtual realities. Since certain parts of electronic messages are closely related to certain kinds of traditional communication, they can be viewed as a new medium of vernacular culture. Electronic communication does not eliminate, but rather provides alternatives to, traditional means of communication. Cybercirculation, e-communication, and digital visual language can thus be used to expand traditional verbal and written communication. Mobile phones and the Internet are used not only for information purposes, but also for entertainment and online contacts as well as exchanges of personal and social views. This type of immediate social reaction to new phenomena has created a special pattern of written visual contacts, global in form and local in content, within which both English and Arabic languages (with various colloquial dialects) are used in e-communications, displaying economic, cultural and gender differences. Due to the government policy surrounding Bedouin settlements, as well as the impact of globalization, traditional patterns of neighborhoods are changing. Modern buildings and spectacular villas exist side by side with traditional local houses, creating vivid displays of cultural and ethnic diversity. The new phenomenon of commuting between places of residence to places (and other cities) of work has also

This is an interview conducted by alayam news where scholars el-Sayed el-Aswad, Sawsan Karimi and Nader Kazim discuss the impact of place/space on the formation of cultural identity.

This is an Arabic book review of Religion and Folk Cosmology, translated by the author (el-Sayed el-Aswad) التصور الشعبي للكون: سناريو الظاهر والباطن في المجتمع القروي المصري

The significance of religion and concepts of al‐ghaib (the invisible and unknowable) and sanctity in a materialistically oriented and globally dominant and changing world has been a nexus of current debates in Orthodox Islam. The concept of al‐ghaib is a fundamental principle in Islamic theology; however, it has a profound impact on Muslim’s daily lives. Thenceforth, this study focuses on the concepts of al‐ghaib, or invisibility, sanctity, and imagination, as reflected in ordinary Muslims’ views and key practices aimed at disclosing the unknown and unseen. This article presents an anthropological holistic insight incorporating objective description and subjective interpretation and as such comprises a phenomenological hermeneutic inquiry. Drawing on ethnographic studies conducted in communities belonging to Bahrain (predominantly Shi‘a) and Egypt (predominantly Sunni), this inquiry aims at exploring the relationships between the Islamic sacred conviction of al‐ghaib and everyday practices of Muslim communities. These ethnographic accounts are examined and compared with scholarly literature and cross‐cultural materials.

The Arabic word, al-ghaib, indicating what is simultaneously absent, unknowable, and invisible, is one of the core concepts in Muslim worldviews. There are extensive orthodox exegeses of al-ghaib made by the "ulama or religious scholars that go beyond the scope of this study which focuses on ordinary Muslims" views and daily lives. This paper asserts that the theme of al-ghaib rises above any specific Muslim sect and is associated with overarching Muslim worldviews.

Throughout the ages, human bodily members, particularly Magic Bodily Members: Human Eye and Hand, have played a significant part in people’s cosmological and magical belief systems and daily lives. The article seeks to show the cosmic, magical and psychic forces of eye and hand that can be transmitted to human beings and other entities.