Decolonizing Middle East anthropology

Abstract

In the anthropology of Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA), there is an effort underway to decolonize the field. This process is taking shape in academic writing, in academic institutions, in field practices, and among broader publics. It must arise from priorities in the region; it also builds on wider scholarship on race, indigeneity, and militarism. It requires an expansion of the bounds of politics, consideration of who can participate, and reconsideration of what the goals of political action are. It entails working toward liberations that are always plural. Decolonizing SWANA anthropology faces distinct challenges in the field, the university, and publication processes because scholars produce critiques that expose contemporary colonialisms, including those related to the long war on terror, Israeli settler colonialism, and other colonialisms in the region. Thus, scholars equip themselves with tools to confront and transform academic institutions. Collaborative research designed to produce change can be an important part of decolonizing anthropology, but such research is not possible across all settings.

A view from another side, or, not just another quit‐lit essay

“…Anthropology is the first discipline to pass such a resolution outside the interdisciplinary or area studies associations. Maybe anthropology was the likeliest place for this to happen, in part because there are many anthropologists with deep knowledge of the SWANA region and of Palestine (Bishara, 2023). And, more broadly, our disciplinary appreciation for the material effects of symbols—like boycotts—encouraged thousands of us to take Palestinian civil society's call seriously.…”