Challenging the Paradigms. Changing Theories in the Middle-Eastern Anthropology after the Tunisian Revolution

The major historical dimension of change, introduced in the Middle Eastern scholarship by the so-called Arabs springs, should inform the anthropological study of the region. I discuss three main anthropological paradigms (interpretive, praxiological, reflexive) against this need-for-change background. The interpretive paradigm is discussed through balancing the experience-distant concepts of political- anthropological analysis with the experience-near concepts of Tunisian social actors involved in the revolutionary process: I tried to locate the analytical concept of democracy against the background of the ideological and practical tools of the protagonists of the revolutionary process. The sub-categories covered under the broader concept of democracy are closer to social actors’ own experience: I refer to such concepts as freedom, dignity, social justice, governmentality, that are analysed with reference to both their explicit formulation and implicit understandings by the individuals and groups involved in the revolutionary process. The reflexive approach in the anthropological study of cultures disseminated the idea that the deeper the involvement of the researcher in the reality s/he is studying, the more comprehensive is the understanding of that culture and society. The ease of immersion in the post- revolutionary Tunisian context, due to the compelling wave of freedom of expression in Tunisia after the revolution, makes that context attractive for anthropologists and researchers in Middle Eastern issues. The sense of freedom researchers experience doing fieldwork in post-revolutionary Tunisia, studying the political movements that fostered freedom of expression during the revolutionary process, is related to the historical change and conquered freedom of expression. Praxiology might be discussed through the ethnographic experience in revolutionary Tunisia, in order to understand how such ideas as homosociality, secularism, pluralism, hegemony become part of people’s daily practices