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Notes Introduction 1. Paramilitary militia headed by Pierre Gemayel. For further information, see William Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East (Oxford: Westview Press, 2000), 372–376. 2. Known also as the Tigers, Camille Chamoun’s own private Christian political party. 3. In the 1950s Camille Chamoun was committed to Lebanon’s Western orientation while an increasing number of Muslims were attracted to Nasser Pan-Arabism. See Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East, 326–327. 4. This term is controversial and evokes different meanings. I use it in the sense of gradual transformation/progress by women’s efforts to respond to the demand of contemporary times. Evolution is the development of men’s/women’s latent capa- bilities, which under the action of favorable circumstances are certain to occur at a certain time. This definition implies that development is a continuum and opens the terrain for the formation of subjectivities, particularly among women and activists. 5. Hizbullah, the Party of God, had formed in Lebanon following the Iranian revo- lution. Its motto was taken from the Qur’an (58:22) perceived as against the Party of Satan (Qur’an 58:19–20). For further information, see Chapter 5, Part II. 6. For more information, see Part III, Chapter 9. 7. Lara Deeb, An Enchanted Modern (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), 20. 8. Amin Maalouf, In the Name of Identity (USA: Penguin Book, 2003), 146. In Lebanon, the quota system divides governmental and administrative power between the three main religious communities according to their numerical number. Though the quota system respects the law of numbers, it is carried to its extreme and does not provide safeguards for the minorities. Thus, each community feels inadequately represented and thus perceives the system to be unjust. 9. Nahda is the Arabic word for renaissance. Lebanon is known as the cradle of the Arab Renaissance and a center of dialogue of cultures and religions. Together the churches’ bell towers and the mosques’ minarets sounds resonate. 222 ● Notes 10. Joseph Maila, head of “Pole Religions” at the Quai d’Orsay (“Le Liban symbolise jusqu’à la déchirure les contradictions du monde arabe”), interviewed by Carole Dagher for L’Orient-Le Jour, October 21, 2009, Beirut. Lebanon represents a real synthesis of all questions related to the Arab contemporary reality as Arab countries struggle to embrace a necessary modernity. Lebanon symbolizes their contradictions at the expense of its own split. 11. For further information, see Chapter 6, Part II. 20 12. Kamala Visweswaran, Fictions of Feminist Ethnography (Minnesota: University of Minnesota, 1994), 17–39. 13. Landers Spickard and McGuire, Personal Knowledge and Beyond, Reshaping the Ethnography of Religion (New York: New York University Press), 195–201. McGuire argues that “good” evidence should not distort the respondent’s experi- ences, beliefs, and feelings; he poses the question of how research can be grounded as truth while using interpersonal interactions and indicates that introspection as a strategy can be valuable. 14. Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interview and Other Writings, 1972– 1977, edited and translated by Colin Gordon et al. (New York: Pantheon, 1972). The reorganizing of knowledge means recreating an epistemological ensemble that defines the conditions and limits of the development of each field of knowl- edge. Truth becomes the creation of the process that discovers it, and in the modern world, power, and knowledge are inextricably linked. 15. Spickard and McGuire, Personal Knowledge, 239. 16. Ibid., 239. 17. National Pact of 1943. Maronite President Bechara el-Khuri and Sunni Prime Minister Riyadh el-Solh worked out a compromise solution to the problem of Lebanese sectarianism and regional identity: Christians accepted Lebanon’s Arab identity and Muslims renounced the merger with other Arab states. More importantly, the pact spells out a formula of sectarian representation in the parliament. 18. Authority given to the succession of the prophet, or an imam (descent of the imam Ali), to lead the Islamic nation. 19. For more information, see Chapter 10, Part III. Chapter 1 1. Toufic Touma, Un village de montagne au Liban (Paris: Mouton & Co. La Haye 1948), 10. 2. An administrative district. 3. A subnational administrative district. 4. Charki means “East” and Gharbi means “West.” 5. Anis Freiha, Mo’jam asma’ el-moudon wal koura el-loubnaniyya (Beirut: Maktabat Loubnan, 1972), 103. Afif B. Morhej, I’raf Loubnan (Beirut: n.p. 1965). 6. See annex photograph of the monastery. Notes ● 223 7. Antione Khoueiry, Zahle malhamat soumoud wa boutoula (Beirut: Markaz el-Ilham), 1982. 8. One dennum = 1,000 m2.Landusedtobemeasuredbyhowmuchofitcanbe worked in one day of labor. 9. “Finnage, or limits of a communal territory, creates a ‘space that is legally owned by a collectivity of people who manage it.’ ” Henri Mendras, Sociétés Paysannes (Paris: Armand Colin, 1976), 35. 10. The Chapel was abandoned in March 16, 1956, after an earthquake. 11. The Maronites are the most influential Christian community in Lebanon. They affirmed their communion with the Catholic church in the twelfth century, and in 1584 they founded the “Maronite college” in Rome. The Patriarch of Antioch and the Middle East Monsignor Nasrallah Sfeir is currently the head of the Maronite Church. His headquarters is in Bkerke on a mountaintop overlook- ing the Mediterranean. Maronites played an essential role in the creation of the “Great Lebanon” following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. 12. Jean Corbon, L’Eglise des Arabes (Paris: Edition Cerf, 1977), 29–33. 13. Ibid. 14. Known as Nahr el ‘Asl in Arabic, Oronte is a river located at the Syrian border with Turkey where the city of Antioch is located. Antioch, currently a Turkish city, occupied an important place in history as the center of the Hellenic Orient, then the third city in importance after Rome and Alexandria when conquered by the Romans in 64 b.c. Evangelized by Christians from Jerusalem, namely, Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas, Antioch became a religious metropolis with Saint Peter as its first bishop. The Persians conquered it in 540, Arabs in 636, Byzantines in 969, and the Seljoukides in 1084. The first Crusaders in 1098 conquered it and transformed it to a principal frank city, Mamlouks reconquered it in 1268, and the Ottomans in 1516. Placed under the French mandate in 1920, Antioch became Turkish territory again in 1939. 15. Religious affiliation. 16. Jamil M. Yazigi, “American Presbyterian Mission Schools in Lebanon” (Master’s thesis, Education Department of the A.U.B. Beirut, 1964), 69. 17. Yazigi, “American,” 91–92. 18. “The mountains of Epire and of Lebanon ...always lived because of Lebanon’s immigrants.” Henri Mendras, Sociétés Paysannes (Paris: Armand Colin, 1976), 146. 19. Ibid. Chapter 2 1. Courrier de l’Unesco, March 1975, Year XVIII. 2. Simone De Beauvoir, Le deuxième sexe (Paris: Gallimard coll. Idées, 1949), 1: 16–19. 3. Roger Garaudy, Pour l’avènement de la femme (Paris: Albin Michel, 1981), 18–38. 224 ● Notes 4. Alouche Richard, “L’image de la femme à travers le romain libanais,” Travaux et Jours, no. 47 (Beirut, 1973), 73–90. 5. Gaston Bouthoul, Les mentalités (Paris: P.U.F., 1971), 30–31. “La mentalité, du point de vue de la société, constitue la structure mentale spécifique de chaque civilisation; et du point de vue du sujet, elle est un ensemble d’idées et de dispo- sitions intellectuelles intégrées dans le même individu, reliées entre elles par des rapports logiques et des rapports de croyance.” 6. Hana Abi Rached, Mu’gam al-amtal (Beirut: Da’irat al-ma’rif, 1954), 73. 7. Selim Abou, Le bilinguisme arabe-français au Liban (Paris: Presse Universitaire de France, 1962), 101. Chapter 3 1. Henri Mendras, Sociétés Paysannes (Paris: Armand Colin, 1976), 79. 2. Claude Levi-Strauss, Les structures élémentaires de la parenté (Paris: Mouton & Co., 1967), 135. 3. Ibid., 136. 4. Germaine Tillion, Le harem et les cousins (Paris: éd. du Seuil, 1966), 8. 5. Ibid., 71. 6. Ibid., 120. 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid. 10. Mounir Chamoun, “Problèmes de la famille au Liban,” Travaux et Jours,no.25 (Beyrouth 1967), 27–30. 11. Translation, Marie-Claude Thomas. 12. Claude Levi-Strauss, Les structures, 47. 13. University Saint Joseph, La génération désenchantée, L’ Or i e n t - L e Jo u r, 2002. 14. L’Orient Le Jour, “L’Appartenance communautaire dicte largement les mariages des Libanaises à des étrangers,” July 20, 2009. 15. A closer examination of these unions reveals that Lebanese Sunnis tended to choose foreign spouses that are Palestinian refugees, Syrian, or Egyptian; Shi’i women often married Iraqis, Syrians, or Egyptians; and Christian women most often chose Syrian, American, French, and to a lesser extent Palestinian or Egyptian husbands. 16. Gospel According to Matthew 10: 1–12. 17. Hanna Malek, Al-ahwal, Al-shakhsiyya wa-mahakimuha fil-tawa’if al masihiyya fi Suriyya wa Lubnan (Beirut: Dar el Nashr, 1972), 96. 18. Robert Clément, Le mariage chrétien au Liban (Paris: Etudes, 1981), 665–678. 19. Ibid., 674. 20. Mounir Chamoun, Problèmes, 39. 21. Alex and Magda are the given names for this case study. I have not disclosed their real names for privacy reasons. 22. Phares Zoghbi, “Le Mariage civil et la laïcité,” L’Orient Le Jour, August 12, 2009. Notes ● 225 23. Mounir Chamoun, Le Mariage, 39: “à côté du mariage religieux qui prendrait alors la valeur d’un signe d’engagement plus personnel dans la vie de l’Église et d’un désir de vie spirituelle plus profonde, le mariage civil permettrait la générali- sation du régime matrimonial monogamique et l’exogamie communautaire dont le Liban a besoin pour homogénéiser ses assises sociales.” Chapter 4 1. In the United States, each state provides licenses to citizens interested in becoming a notary public.
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