| ID | 106949 |
| Title Proper | Taste and class in late ottoman Beirut |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Abou-Hodeib, Toufoul |
| Publication | 2011. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This article deals with the material aspects of the late Ottoman home in Beirut, focusing on the notion of taste (dhawq) and its role in constructing class boundaries. It looks at how intellectuals used taste to articulate a prescriptive middle-class domesticity revolving around the woman as manager of the house and privileging moderation and authenticity in consumption habits. Rather than take such tastes as representative of actual consumption habits of an emerging middle class, and arguing for an approach that goes beyond taste as a construct, the article investigates the potentiality of new objects for subverting the existing social order. Based on a marital-conflict case brought to the Hanafi court, the article explores how one such object, a phonograph, opened interpretive possibilities in the gendered rigidity of court procedures. |
| `In' analytical Note | International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 43, No. 3; Aug 2011: p475-492 |
| Journal Source | International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 43, No. 3; Aug 2011: p475-492 |
| Key Words | Ottoman ; Beirut |