Customary strangers : new perspectives on peripatetic peoples in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia /

The peripatetic lifestyle is an adaptation that has been an integral part of developments within the socioeconomic and cultural networks that social scientists study. The ambiguous integration of peripatetics into these networks as well as the often negatively charged constructs - "Gypsies," "outsid...

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Bibliographic Details

Other Authors:	Berland, Joseph C., Rao, Aparna
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2004.
Subjects:	Nomads. Human territoriality.
Summary:	The peripatetic lifestyle is an adaptation that has been an integral part of developments within the socioeconomic and cultural networks that social scientists study. The ambiguous integration of peripatetics into these networks as well as the often negatively charged constructs - "Gypsies," "outsiders," or "marginal others" -- are imposed on peripatetics by dominant cultures. Peripatetics are situated at the fringes of their host societies. Contributors examine the place of peripatetic peoples in the everyday lives and diverse cognitive maps of client communities. Relying on Georg Simmel's construct of "The Stranger," the contributors to this volume suggest that peripatetic peoples are simultaneously outsiders and insiders, but most important, they are entrepreneurial middlemen traders par excellence. All told, the essays provoke vital reassessments of the anthropological focus on the role and status of "cultural brokers" and go-betweens in political, economic, and social interactions.