Tribal Modern: Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf

TRIBAL MODERN: Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf. By Miriam Cooke. 214 pp.; ills., biblio., index. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014. $ 29.95 (paperback), ISBN 9780520280106. The idea that tribes are modern may surprise many readers. But surprise, in the sense of challenging preconceived notions, is one of the most poignant contributions of miriam cooke's latest book, Tribal Modern: Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf. Focusing on the Gulf states of Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE--four states that have experienced profound development and modernization over the last several decades, yet have embraced a strong tribal identity--cooke provides a nuanced argument that works to break down the deeply entrenched binary of tribal/modern. Beginning from the premise that popular thinking and media hype about the Arab Gulf perpetuates stereotypes of the region as being either tribal and backward with superficial modern elements, or as an example of failed modernity because of its tribal foundation, she argues that "far from medieval or primitive markers, tribes are modern" (p. 65). Cooke develops this argument specifically through the concept of barzakh, an Arabic word that does not translate easily into English, but denotes a "simultaneous processes of mixing and separation" (p. 13) or an "undiluted convergence" (p. 10). Using this word to denote a wider concept and process, she explicates that it is not that the modern and tribal clash with one another in the Arab Gulf, as popular thinking and media hype assume, but that there is an intermingling of modern and tribal in such a way that a new category in and of itself is created. Though cooke does not explicitly state her broader theoretical framework, her argument seems to resonate strongly with relational thinking, in how the numerous linkages and connection of tribal and modern create new assemblages. In eight chapters, plus the conclusion, she addresses how the tribal modern has been made in the Arab Gulf. Focusing greatly on branding, or nation-building, she demonstrates the constructedness and performance of tribal-modern national identities. The Gulf Arab states, she writes, have erased their transnational and heterogeneous past, their strong and long history of connection to the rest of the world, in an attempt to create a "pure past" (p. 27) that is greatly defined by a tribal history. This history is a "fiction," (p. 27) she suggests, but nevertheless, a fiction that has been widely adopted, cooke explains this fiction--this branding of a pure past as tribal and localized--as part of the modernization of the Arab Gulf. Over the last several decades, the idea of the tribe has evolved in the Arab Gulf, but with relatively recently found national wealth, massive modernization projects, and a diverse population of foreign workers, tribal identity has become central for distinguishing national citizens who are entitled to the nation's wealth, cooke draws on an array of data sources to articulate this argument. This impressive breadth of data and examples includes surveys that students conducted in Qatar about tribes and marriage, conversations she had with students, popular culture, poetry, literature, film, architecture, televised poet competitions, and a new subculture of gender mixing and cross-dressing. Tribal Modern is a wonderful book for working through stereotypes and assumptions about the Arab Gulf specifically, and about notions of tribe and modernity more generally, cooke makes warranted arguments and rich insights well suited for lower-level undergraduate courses and for general audiences. Perhaps due to its short length, unfortunately, cooke does not develop arguments that could have contributed to longstanding, yet still vital, academic discussions and theorizations on nation-building and modernity. Though much of this book focuses on nation-building processes, cooke provides very little broader context on this process--both in the sense of the commonality of nation-building and in the sense of what literature exists on the topic. …