| Summary/Abstract |
Cars are a central means by which socio-political information is communicated in Lebanese public space, as is the case in other car cultures around the world. In Lebanon, cars are used to perform and reproduce structures of power within the country’s social hierarchy. In recent years, a highly developed system of automobile symbols and meanings has emerged and driving on the Lebanese roads requires that drivers become fluent in this ‘grammar’ of power. This article reconciles the anthropological ‘turn to the state’ with a growing body of literature on automobility in the Middle East and work on the roles of cars in social and political performance in a wide range of other cultural contexts. Following Mitchell’s theorisation of the ‘state effect’, this article argues that it is through this grammar, interpreted every day on the Lebanese roads, that state power is substantiated. However, Lebanese automobiles add a further layer of complexity to the ‘state effect’ by simultaneously drawing attention to the state’s fragmentation and impotency. They highlight other coexisting and competing systems of power. Lebanese drivers are disciplined in interpreting and acting on these signs on a daily basis. This article is an ethnographic account of the language of power embodied by automobiles. It gives a detailed analysis of the information conveyed by four main visual aspects of cars on the Lebanese road and explores the implications for understandings of statehood and power that emerge.
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