zyxwvutsr Meanlng and Order In Moroccan Soclety: Three Essays In Cultural Anaiysfs. CLIFFORD QEERTZ, HILDRED QEERTZ, and LAW. RENCE ROSEN. Photographic essay b y Paul Hymen. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. xll + 510 pp., figures, tables, maps, appendix, Index. $35.00 (cloth). BRlAN SPOONER Universitv of Pennsylvania This extremely interesting, readable, and expensive (though reasonably priced for i t s size) book is apparently designed to stand as the major ethnographic publication from the field research program associated with the name of Clifford Ceertz, which was carried out in Morocco between 1965 and 1971 and has already produced several books and articles (listed on p 17) It is an attempt to present the society of a small town, Sefrou. in the Middle Atlas in northern Morocco in its cultural and historical context for both lay and professional readership as a microcosm of Morocco, the Msghreb, and in a rather vague way, the Middle East as a whole As a study of a town in its regional context there is nothing comprehensive enough to compare with it in the anthropological literature on the Middle East, and it is more sociological, and more comprehensive and ambitious, than the otherwise comparable works by geographers such as Gubser [Politics and Change in A/-Karak, lordan, 1973) The book is in the form of three separate essays (plus a photo essay of 64 excellent photographs). Each essay stands o n i t s own but bears an obvious relation to the other two; they progress from the general to the particular Rosen's comes first and addresses the range of social identities and concepts involved in the negotiation of reciprocal relations. The central and longest essay is by C. Ceertz and focuses on the suq (bazaar). The third essay, by H. Ceertz, deals with the family ties and kinship. One question that immediately arises in the mind of the reader i s whether the authors might not have been more successful if they had prepared three separate and more detailed monographs to add t o the series of existing publications from their project. Such a dilemma faces any scholars engaged in research that i s in some way joint or related. The solution of separate monographs would have allowed each author greater autonomy. By accepting the solution of juxtaposed essays. the first and third unavoidably lose stature in relation t o the second -another virtuoso performance from C. Ceertz, t o whose work their own is in considerable debt. The book does, therefore, have its unity, but it is a unity in which the stature of C. Ceertz i s enhanced at the expense of his collaborators (whose essays are written in this theoretical framework and serve to set his centerpiece essay in a broader context) At a basic, descriptive level, these two service essays are useful c o n tributions to the anthropology of the Middle East, but both would have been much more important if more attention had been given to their comparative context Rosen's discussion of concepts and their operationalization often ends in generalizations that are too abstract and vague, although his somewhat incidental discussion of the irrigation system (which once again ignores the comparative literature and the issues that other writers on irrigation have addressed) i s important, and there are some good formul?tions towards the end. H Ceertz's description i s done in the mode of arguing against something which we can all guess at but which she leaves uniden tified. The arguments have been made before by Peters. Her data are interesting but would have been better presented in such a way that they added to our theoretical understanding of the formal aspects of social structure in an Islamic society For the rest, it i s in the grand Ceertzian style Ceertzophites will love it; Ceertzophobes may claim here and there that they cannot find the sense behind the rhetoric I noted "chaffer," "arbitrager," "reprise" (as a verb). "transaccidental," "Austinian," "perseverhte." ' inimiseration." and "colporteurs" as somewhat precious tests of the reader's classical education. and as examples of passages where rhetorical effect appears t o take precedence over meaning Middle Eastern societv zyxwvu zyxwvutsr zyxw zyxwvutsrq copes with diversity by distinguishing with elaborate precision the contexts (marriage diet, worship. education) within which men are separated by their dissimilitudes and those (work, friendship, politics, trade) where however warily and however conditionally men are connected by their differences (p 141) An example of an outrageously purplethough not altogether unsuccessful -passage may be found on page 197 where Ceertz i s in troducing a section on exchange in the bazaar Often one is moved to ask what it all means-in terms of social and cultural theory or the history and society of the Middle East The continual striving to formulate and describe i s obvious The familiar Ceertzian twin concept of model of and "model for" IS there (p 149) and i s more formally stated in the introduction to the book as a common framework for all three essays That the systems of meaning, whether highly explicit like Islam or rather less so like hospital revlews 783 zyxwv zyxwv zyxw zyxwvutsr ity. in terms of which individuals live out their lives constitute what order those lives attain We see social relationships as embodying and embodied in symbolic forms that give them structure, and we are concerned to identify such forms and trace their impact (p 6). The result in the case of C Geertz’s essay i s a unique essay on the bazaar as a cultural form-a total social phenomenon-which will surely be looked upon as a classic Especially worthy of mention are passages on the bazaar as an information system and on the Arabic language (pp. 198-212). on insights into the nature of clientship (pp 218 and 260). and on bargaining (pp 221-229) The section on the Jews (pp 168-1721 must be the best (though brief) ethnographic piece of writing on Jews in a traditional Middle Eastern setting The emic breakdown of the bazaar by institutions and vernacular concepts (pp 150-164) is memorable and reminiscent of Gearing‘s structural poses Throughout the book copious footnotes and annexes go a long way towards satisfying the professional reader’s interest in further data and comparative sources (though the system of footnoting leads t o unnecessary repetition of references). On the negative side, a few points require mention Some of the more specific of these may simply be due t o the author’s obsession with words and symmetrical phrasing For example, although he shows that he understands perfectly well that Islam is not an exclusively religious institution, he allows himself to make a contrary point Habus ”were, in short, pious foundations given wholly over to commercial activities themtelves untrammelled by any sort of pious scruples” (p 131) Although the bibliography (infuriatingly difficult t o check because of the footnote form) is generally excellent, he seems to have missed works on the Iranian bazaars k g . . Vieille. Thaiss, and Rotblat) A more significant and general point although the study was in progress for six years. it was organized (or not organized) in such a way that data collected at different times by different people were often not comparable In the write-up, there i s no recognition of change. which this reviewer finds amazing tor a study in a developing country in the late 1Y60s and which lead5 me to suggest that the lack of this dimension may be a function and a failing of the theoretical framework in which the work is presented Little indication i s given of the degree t o which any of the three authors consider their generalizations to be valid for the world beyond the provincial boundaries within which they worked They do not demonstrate to us that all the social uncertainty and ambiguity that they emphasize i s really different from other societies in space and time-rather than the function of just another ethnocentric, albeit very sophisticated. representation of Islam. Their work desperately needs a comparative context There are hints (e g , p 235) that we are meant to see the Maghreb. and t o some extent the whole of the Middle East, as the cultural context of the book, but the hint is very vague On the other hand, much that i s general- ized about Sefrou society sounds reminiscent not only of other parts of the Maghreb or Middle East but of premodern Europe and especially southern Europe No attempt I S made to indicate what might be distinctive about Sefrou or about Islamic society Finally, although this i s not C Geertz s first published work on the Middle East, it i s the most substantial and suggests a comparison between his work and that of the other malor specialists in the area To what extent does Meaning and Order in Moroccan Society lead us to compare C Geertz with, for example. Barth or Peters? Each of them has contributed valuable ethnography from specific parts of the Middle East and has made valuable theoretical contributions The most obvious difference between them I$ that Barth and Peters have developed their theoretical arguments in the Middle East and have seen them applied elsewhere Geertz brought his framework ready-made to the Middle East It i s difficult to see how his ideas have developed as a result of his Middle East experience zyxwv zyxwvuts zyx 784 amerlcan ethnologlet Science and Colonlal Expenrlon: Tho Role of the Brltlrh Royal Botenlc Gardens. LUCiLE H. BROCKWAY. New York: Academic Prerr, 1979. xlv + 215 pp., tables, Illustratlonr. appendix, references, Index. 521.00 (cloth). 5JEPHIN C B U N K f R University of / / / i n o i ~ Urhana This fascinating book weaves botanical historical, economic, political. and ethnographic data from five continents into one of the most coherent and convincing applications of the world system perspective to case material that I have encountered. It does this by clearly and specifically relating how 19th-century plant transfers from Latin America were carried out and how they affected social and economic or ganization in Latin America. Asia, Africa. and Europe The book’s theoretical success is ecpe cially delightful because its centerpiece. and the pivot of i t s many stories. is a British botanical garden, Kew, whose ornamental facade and wholesome recreational functions contrast so strongly with the sinister and downright ugly rPsults of the politically enforced, unequal PI: change usually associated with capitalist iniperialism. Far more effectively than any polemi cal denunciation could do, this book conveys a strong sense of how much of what i s elegant and lovely in western European or North American civilization was developed and sustained by the appropriation of the human energies and natural resources of Latin America, Asia, and Africa It is a tribute to Brockway’s craftsmanship that rhe does not need to make this point explicitly The core of Brockway’s analysis i s the role played by Victorian botanists at Kew in the transfer of three plants-cinchona, from whose bark quinine i s extracted, rubber trees (especially