Description

Norms and values are the main topics of this collection of articles. The tenaciousness, but also changes of norms and values in Islamic societies are followed in various Islamic regions, ranging from Libya (Kohl), Egypt (Danczul), Syria (Fartacek, Pinto, Stolleis) and Saudi Arabia (Gingrich), to Indonesia (Heiss), touching themes of legal anthropology (Danczul, Shehada), refugee studies (Kroner, Shehada), migration (Heiss) and the anthropology of religion (Fartacek, Pinto). Norms and values are shown as guidelines of behaviour that show people how to react to usual situations and how to adapt to those that are unusual, in a manner compatible to their respective society. At the same time norms and values are part of people's identity, enabling them to draw borders between themselves and others, whether of other religions, other political affiliations or other social groups. But norms and values also show the influence of outside ideas and processes on small communities, connections to key-issues such as honour and shame, societal and technical changes, and the influence of governmental measures and interests. In addition, the contributions in this volume show the many differences between Islamic societies that contradict the sweeping assumptions of stereotypical uniformity in Islamic regions. Norms and values in Islamic societies are the main topics of the present collection of articles. The persistence and changes of norms and values are pursued through different Islamic regions, ranging from Libya (Kohl), Egypt (Danczul), Syria (Fartacek, Pinto, Stolleis) and Saudi Arabia (Gingrich) to Indonesia (Heiss), touching themes of legal anthropology (Danczul, Shehada), refugee studies (Kroner, Shehada), migration (Heiss) and anthropology of religion (Fartacek, Pinto).