PROJECTS
MIDDLE EAST

LOCALITY AND PIETY IN ISLAMIC NORTH AFRICA AND WEST ASIA
(1) Gebhard Fartacek | Zones of Uncertainty: Ritual and Taboo in the Near East from the Perspectives of Space and Time.
(2) Gebhard Fartacek | Pilgrimage Cities in the Syrian Periphery. An Ethnographic Study of the Cognitive Construction of Sacred Places and their Practical Relevance.
(3) Günther Windhager | From Lemberg to Mecca (1900-1927).The early biography of Leopold Weiss, alias Muhammad Asad.
(4) Barbara Danczul | “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?” Local Strategies for Conflict Resolution of Violence and Revenge in Egypt.
(5) Ines Kohl | Identities between Boundaries: Strategies of Belonging among the Imajeghen (Tuareg) of Libya.
(6) Gudrun Kroner | Beyond the Ties of Home. A Comparison of Female Refugees in the Arabic-Islamic world.
(7) Johann Heiss | Anthropological Interpretations in Southwest Arabia.
 
 
 
JOHANN HEISS | ANTHROPOLOGICAL INTERPRETATIONS IN SOUTHWEST ARABIA

Genealogical thinking determines one’s own relations using the criteria of (more or less) realistic ancestral lines. These ancestral lines can be traced either through the father or the mother, or sometimes in combination of the two. Patrilineal genealogies, particularly those that are characteristic of the highlands of southwest Arabia, began in the early middle ages within tribal cultures and gradually these practices diffused throughout the region. Ideological, political and economic influences were significant factors in the development of these practices. In particular, they shaped the identities of Yemeni groups now called sâda, especially with regard to their descent from the Prophet Muhammad.
 
Johann Heiss, in the first portion of his research, pursued the history of this genealogical term within and outside of Southwest Arabia. His second, more detailed study entitled “Genealogie und Erinnerung” (Genealogy and Memory), which was also his Habilitation thesis, studied genealogical relationships among the tribal societies in North Yemen, and differentiated between ...
 
... two different methods of determining descent:
  • On the one hand, the tribal construct, in which the separation between groups is assumed and as a result, territorial claims are sustained and legitimated.
     
  • On the other hand, the genealogy of the descendants of the prophet Muhammad bestows a greater measure of prestige and legitimacy and in this function is comparable to the genealogies of the middle European aristocracy or the ruling families of Indonesia.
 
Trade routes, Wider Influences and the Construction of Identities is the title of still another research project Heiss continues to pursue in the context of his studies in Southwest Arabia. Even in the pre-Islamic period the southwest portion of the Arabian Peninsula was firmly connected with the northern half of the peninsula, the eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, East Africa and India by trade routes over land and sea.
Later, these routes gained new significance as routes for pilgrims to the holy sites of Islam. Even in today’s globalized world, these trade and pilgrimage routes are important in the transmission of the representations, ideas, and technical products from the southwestern portion of the peninsula throughout the network of the long distance trade connections.
 
Heiss’ new publication from 2006, Siedlungsmuster im südwestlichen Saudi-Arabien (Settlement patterns in southwest Saudi-Arabia) explored the unique characteristics of different settlement patterns of the region and presented environmental sketches, settlement maps, and written commentaries.
 
 
 
Heiss, Johann (2006): Siedlungsmuster im südwestlichen Saudi Arabien. In: Dostal, Walter (ed.): Tribale Gesellschaften der südwestlichen Regionen des Königreichs Saudi Arabien. Sozialanthropologische Untersuchungen. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. 517-534 (text) and 683-700 (illustrations)
-> see publications

Heiss, Johann (2005): Die Bevölkerung des Jemen. In: Kopp, Horst (ed.): Länderkunde Jemen. Wiesbaden: Ludwig-Reichert-Verlag.
 
 

Serial of the research program "Local Identities and wider influences"
at the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press (in German)
  
 

 
Volume II: Johann Heiss (ed.): Veränderung und Stabilität. Normen und Werte in islamischen Gesellschaften,
published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, Vienna, 2005

Contributors: Barbara Danczul, Gebhard Fartacek, Andre Gingrich, Johann Heiss, Ines Kohl, Gudrun Kroner, Paulo G. Pinto, Nahda Shehada and Friederike Stolleis.
 
-> Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
 
 		 
 
     
 
 

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Notice: We want to inform you that the research program will come to an end on the 31st of March 2007. Since that time this homepage will not be updated anymore.