Equality and Inequality in Islam Author(s): Talal Asad Source: Man, New Series, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Jun.

, 1973), pp. 305-306 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2800854 . Accessed: 21/01/2011 11:34
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CORRESPONDENCE nancy,everytimean unpregnant woman had sexual intercourseshe would become pregnant. And everyone knows this does not happen. Trobriand teenagers, who have rather frequent random sexual liaisons, simply do not become pregnantvery often. During the year and a half I spent in Kaduand they waga no teenagerbecame pregnant, insisted they were using no precautions. However, Kaduwagans note that when a woman sleepsnightafter nightwith a man or men shebecomes pregnant unlesssheisbarren. It is thus the frequencyof the act of intercourse which must be the causal factor,and the pounding theoryfitswith this. Without knowing about ovulation (hence my commentsabout microscopeswhich Spiro findsso 'quaint') it is impossibleto refutetheirlogic. I thus cannot subscribeto Spiro's view that thereis a gap in knowledge to be explained. The Trobriand position is more consistent with the observed conditions of pregnancy than is the view thatthe depositionof sperm is adequate to cause it. Maybe we should ask not why did the Kiriwinans ignore their neighbours' theories, but why did their neighboursignore theirs? Susan P. Montague

305

pological emphasisis almost always brought to bear upon the supposedly egalitarian featuresof such societies' when the work of Salim, Peters (on Lebanon), Femea, Barclay, Cunnison, Bujra, Aswad, Barth, etc. are all concernedin one way or anotherwith social inequalityin parts of the Islamic world. The fact that the starkeconomic inequalitiesdescribed for the agro-pastoral Lurs are not reportedfor the pastoral Somali or Kababish or Berbers is explained not by any 'anthropological mystique' about Islamic equality politico-economic but by the very different in which the latterlive. circumstances I thinkthatpart of the troubleis thatBlack has not decided clearlywhetherhe is focusor 'stratifiing on 'social differentiation' cation' or 'political dominance' or 'ranking' or 'class opposition', or,ifon all of these,then how he thinksthese conceptsare analytically connected.One resultof thisindecisionis that he punctuateshis ethnographicaccount with meaningless general statementssuch as the following: 'I shall try to show how Luri society at present works as an integrated system in which social inequality between extended families,and individual tribesmen, lineages, constitutes ... a necessary precondition for the survival of the whole.' University ofChicago Black's one explicitreference to a minor social Spiro, Melford E. I968. Virgin birth, par- stratificationtheorist (Buckley), and that thenogenesis and physiological pater- merely to argue from authority a very nity: an essay in culturalinterpretation. trivial point (thatsocial mobilityis compatible Man (N.S.) 3, 243-6I. suggeststhat he is with social stratification), unfamiliarwith the complex nature of the 'hierarchyversusequality' debate in modern Equality and inequalityin Islam sociology. His gratuitous observation that marxistparadigm a perfect SIR, 'Luristanpresents I enjoyed reading Mr Black's interesting of capitalist exploitation'indicatesan elemenaccount of social inequalityamong the Lurs, tary misunderstanding of Marx (for whom exploitabut would like to correcta few minor mis- not all class exploitationis capitalist conceptions. Black believes that there is a tion) as well as a misconceptionconcerning tendency among anthropologiststo ignore the nature of the capitalistmode of producthe presence of inequality in Islamic tribal tion (nothingin Black's briefaccount of the societies, and thatthisbias derivespartlyfrom Lurs suggestsits presencehere). A minor point: given Black's view about the work of scholarswhose 'predominantly of the importance of 'quantitative data [reliterary approach to urban manifestations Islam' leads to a view of the Islamic com- lating to] ecology and economics' (which I munity 'as a monolithic undifferentiated share) would it not have improved his collectivity'. The literature on structured articleif he had provided us with any of the inequalitywithinIslamic societyis enormous, following basic data: total population of ratios, proporas a rapid perusal of the writings of von Luristan,land/animal/human on agriculture as tionofpopulationdependent Grunebaum, Levy, Berger, van Nieuwenhuijze, Rodinson, Warrenerand Lambton, to againstpastoralism, average ratesof accumuname only a few of the betterknown, will lation for the different modes of production, reveal. In factI cannot offhandthinkof any etc., etc.? I was gratified to read thatBlack approved reputable writer on Middle Eastern society who understresses the phenomenon of in- of my recent discussionof Barth's book on missed equalityin Islamic society.It is perhapsunfair Swat, but fear that he has essentially to expect that Black, who is after all an the point of that analysis. If he had underanthropologist,should be familiarwith the stood what that articlewas about he would general literatureon Islam. But it is very not have demanded 'a similarreworking' of surprising of him to assertthat 'The anthro- my Kababish material.A similarreworking

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CORRESPONDENCE my intention to suggest either point; and indeed I hope thatanotherbook on theBailey formulais forthcoming. University ofKent

is already contained in my book, but the similarity is evident in the pursuit of a theoreticalproblem and not in the reproduction of an identical socio-economic picture. A major theme of my book (which Black setsup as a straw-manin his article)is that the dominance of the ruling elite is based on the effective exclusionof the majority by the latterfrom the means of administration (and the power and wealth thatsuch control yields), as as well as on 'the individualisticethos of the Kababish at large, their tendencyto set up small independenthousehold groups as the ultimateunits of continuous commitment', etc.The sharpdichotomy between rulers and ruled is, of course, an analyticalone (i.e. relatedto my basic concern with the problem of political domination); I provide ample detailon differences based on wealth, honour, economic security, and influence foundwithinboththeelite and their subject population. But I also raised another point which has quite escaped Black, although it is quite familiar to the marxist traditionof thoughtto which he sometimes seems to allude in his article. This is that political domination and exploitation, as a collectively experienced structureof social life, is conceived and legitimated in differentways by different groups, that such ideologies (in the special marxist sense) constitutea major historicalreason for the very of politicaland social inequality. perpetuation Black's clumsydiscussion of' freedom'among the Lur is an indication that he is groping towards a more sophisticatedunderstanding of the characterof inequality in Luristan. I am sure that when this attemptsucceeds,he will recognisethatto say as he does at the end of his article 'Men consent to the structures which areforced upon them,and no more' is not only wrong,but simple-mindedly wrong. Talal Asad University ofHull

J.Davis

Institute prehistory
I find myselfin agreementwith Professor Stockingover thefactthatRobert Owen was not involved in the production of the questionnaireof the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Queries... I84I). His suggestion, however, that the source of Penniman's quotation which mentions an Owen was froma 'Freudian slip' of Sir ArthurKeith, I find extremelytenuous and of a form of historical speculation in which I did not thinkStockingindulged. The most likely source of Penniman's comment is Howarth (I93I: I99) who states that the booklet was produced by Hodgkin, Owen, Grey and Babington, and it is clear from the index reference that he did indeed mean Richard Owen (i 804-I892), thefamous comparativeanatomist.The names Stocking actually quotes were in fact only members of the proposed committee (BAAS Rep.: I839: xxvi), and the actual persons who finallyconstructedthe questions may easily have included Richard Owen who was at that time on the Council of the Association and involved with the same section. Owen also contributed papers to theJournalof the laterEthnologicalSocietyprovingthathe had close contactswith the subject. Of greater interestis the history of the developmentof the questionnaire itself (Urry in press). Although the actual impetus to produce such a questionnaire was a paper on the extinctionof certainhuman races read by Pritchardat the I839 meeting of the BAAS (Queries ... I84I: 3; BAAS Rep., I839: 89), and it was eventuallymodelled on a similar publication of the Paris Ethnological Society (Urry I973), the idea for such a venturewas in fact older. In I835, Thomas Hodgkin had of such a set suggestedtheneed and usefulness of queries in a paper on languages (I835). Thomas Hodgkin was an active Quaker (Friends, Society of... i888), and at this period the Society of Friends issued sets of questions known as 'Queries' to elicit information on their membership(Isichei I970: 73-4). It is very probable that the original idea ofHodgkin's and thetitlewas inspired by thisconnexion. Many Quakers were involved in the later foundation of the Ethnological Society and some may indeed have had contacts with Robert Owen. Hodgkin had visitedsome of the colonies (Kass & Bartlett I969: I73).
SIR,

Research in Sussex
In Man ((N.S.) 7, 493-4) reviewing F. G. Bailey's Giftsand poison I wrote: '. . . these studentsare scattered;the progenitorof this book has left,and Sussex Universityseems now to value undergraduateteaching above all else. The book may be unique, and that would be a pity.' Friendsstillat Sussexhave chidedme, complaining I give the impression they have in post-graduate work; also given up interest thattheyare no longer involved in European anthropology. Such is my regard for them that,even thoughI thinktheirreadingof the review is mistaken,I am anxious you should publish this disclaimerfrom me: it was not
SIR,