Everyday Sectarianism in Urban Lebanon Infrastructures, Public Services, and Power

187 Pages·2016·13.722 MB·English

by  Joanne Randa Nucho

EVERYDAY SECTARIANISM IN URBAN LEBANON
Princeton Studies in Culture and Technology
Tom Boellstorff and Bill Maurer, series editors
This series presents innovative work that extends classic ethnographic methods
and questions into areas of pressing interest in technology and economics. It
explores the varied ways new technologies combine with older technologies
and cultural understandings to shape novel forms of subjectivity, embodiment,
knowledge, place, and community. By doing so, the series demonstrates the
relevance of anthropological inquiry to emerging forms of digital culture in the
broadest sense.
Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond
by Stefan Helmreich with contributions
from Sophia Roosth and Michele Friedner
Digital Keywords: A Vocabulary of Information Society and Culture
edited by Benjamin Peters
Democracy’s Infrastructure: Material Politics and Popular Illegality in South Africa
by Antina von Schnitzler
Everyday Sectarianism in Urban Lebanon: Infrastructures, Public Services, and Power
by Joanne Randa Nucho
EVERYDAY SECTARIANISM
IN URBAN LEBANON
Infrastructures, Public Services, and Power
Joanne Randa Nucho
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2016 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press,
41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR
press.princeton.edu
Cover image: Beirut, Lebanon/Shutterstock
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Nucho, Joanne Randa, 1979– author.
Title: Everyday sectarianism in urban Lebanon : infrastructures, public services,
and power / Joanne Nucho.
Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2017] | Series: Princeton studies
in culture and technology | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016005279| ISBN 9780691168968 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780691168975 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Civil society—L ebanon. | Religion and civil society— Lebanon. | Municipal
services— Political aspects—L ebanon. | Public welfare— Political aspects— Lebanon. | Public
welfare— Religious aspects. | Infrastructure (Economics)— Lebanon. | Lebanon— Politics and
government.
Classification: LCC JQ1828.A91 N83 2017 | DDC 306.2095692— dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016005279
British Library Cataloging-i n- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Janson Text LT Std
Printed on acid-f ree paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of my grandmother,
Yegsapeth Isabel Kouyoumjian
v

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Note on Language xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 All That Endures from Past to Present 30
Temporality, Sectarianism, and a “Return” to Wartime in Lebanon
Chapter 2 Permanently Temporary 51
Constructing “Armenianness” through Informal Property Regimes
Chapter 3 Building the Networks 73
NGOs, Gender, and “Community”
Chapter 4 From Shirkets to Bankas 94
Credit, Lending, and the Narrowing of Networks
Chapter 5 The Eyes of Odars 108
City- to- City Collaborations and Transnational Reach
Conclusion Far More Dangerous Times 127
Notes 136
References 151
Index 165
vii

Illustrations
Figure I.1. Rooftop view of Bourj Hammoud 18
Figure I.2 The Beirut River dividing Bourj Hammoud from Beirut 18
Figure I.3. Mixed residential and business area in Bourj Hammoud 20
Figure I.4. The Naba‘a neighborhood of Bourj Hammoud 21
Figure I.5. Tangle of electricity cables in Bourj Hammoud 27
Figure 1.1. Building bearing the scars left by bullets 34
Figure 2.1. Sanjak camp 55
Figure 2.2. Destroyed house in Sanjak camp 58
Figure 2.3. The autostrade (highway) side of Sanjak camp 60
Figure 2.4. Arakadz 67
Figure 2.5. Gate at the entrance to Arakadz 71
Figure 5.1. Electricity cables hanging over the street in Bourj Hammoud 113
Figure 5.2. Elevated bridge bypassing the streets of Bourj Hammoud 119
Figure 5.3. View from below elevated bridge in Bourj Hammoud 120
Figure 5.4. Another view from below elevated bridge in Bourj Hammoud 121
ix