A Ne Old Damascus Authenticity and Distinction in Urban Syria [Paperback]

[F]illed with rare encounters with Syrias oldest, most elite families. Critics of anthropologys taste for exoticism and marginality will savor this study of upper-class Damascus, a world that is urbane and cosmopolitan, yet in many ways as remote as the settings in which the best ethnography has traditionally been done.... [Written] with a nuanced appreciation of the cultural forms in question and how Damascenes themselves think, talk about, and create them. Andrew Shryock

In contemporary urban Syria, debates about the representation, preservation, and restoration of the Old City of Damascus have become part of status competition and identity construction among the citys elite. In theme restaurants and nightclubs that play on images of Syrian tradition, in television programs, nostalgic literature, and visual art, and in the rhetoric of historic preservation groups, the idea of the Old City has become a commodity for the consumption of tourists and, most important, of new and old segments of the Syrian upper class. In this lively ethnographic study, Christa Salamandra argues that in deploying and debating such representations, Syrians dispute the past and criticize the present.

Indiana Series in Middle East StudiesMark Tessler, general editor

. . . A New Old Damascus is an ambitious attempt to shed light on the complexities of elite Damascenes . . . [I]t remains a noteworthy contribution to the emerging study of globalization, elites, and urbanism in the Middle East.. . . Salamandra's book presents a compelling analysis that sheds light on the socio-spatial relations prevailing in Old Damascus and gives the reader a rare glimpse into the lives of upperclass Syrians. June 2007

Christa Salamandra is Associate Professor of Anthropology, Lehman College, City University of New York.

. . . [this] book will be required reading for scholars generally interested in sectarian politics in the Middle East and scholars specifically interested in Lebl3!