The rose and the thorn

Drawing on shared field experience and semiotic theory, an anthropologist and a literary analyst focus on the ``texts'' of marriage in two Berber communities. They draw critically and selectively on the varied Maghrebian research of P. Bourdieu, C. and H. Geertz, E. Gellner, David Hart, and others to achieve a challenging synthesis. By exploring the tensions between social integration and fragmentation as these affect politics, kinship, gender, and status, the authors elegantly demonstrate how structure itself affords the means of strategic manipulation. The primary focus on matrimonial institutions and practices permits a wide-ranging exploration of Berber history and culture; it also richly illustrates the reproduction of social values in narrative structure and aesthetic principles. Theoretically transparent and stylistically attractive, this specialized but appealing ethnography exemplifies important current directions in current social and aesthetic theory. In showing how lyrics "reveal the dichotomy between contractual motivations and individualistic strategies,'' the authors set the scene for a stunning analysis of exchange and reciprocity that marks this work's major contribution to the symbolism of gender relations and political process in changing societies. -- From https://www.buffalolib.org (August 31, 2016).