Amin Maalouf On Identity Pdf Download
Elfreda Dasovich
In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong (French: Les Identits Meurtrires) is a 1998 book by Amin Maalouf, in which he discusses the identity crisis that Arabs have experienced since the establishment of continuous relationships with the west, adding his personal dimension as a Lebanese Christian.[1]
This work is divided into five major chapters, "Identity and Belonging", "When Modernity Comes From the Other", "The Era of Cosmic Tribals", "Taming the Shrew" and a glossary. He begins with universal values of identity, which he dissects, describes the extremes, then applies them to the Levant. He attempts to describe how the average modern Arab feels, along a wide spectrum of ideologies in practice throughout the Arab world...from religious beliefs and traditional practices to total secularism.
To Be and Not To Be. In this book, Amin Maalouf, discusses one of the most vital notions of the self; identity, in an analysis of historical and contemporary contexts aiming to reveal the misconceptions and abuses of this mode of recognition. Whether national, religious, ethnical or other, identity has been the prominent element and more than often the instigator of serious upheavals in the world. He examines how we have come to define ourselves and how certain modes of identification can be dangerous. Every time identity is determined on the basis of a single form of affiliation, danger arises, since this often leads to fanaticism, whose various shades appeared throughout history and continues to exist in time. He attributes this to an ill understanding of identity and an unnecessary paranoid attempt of its preservation. Get Help With Your EssayIf you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
A French entomologist, attending a symposium in Cairo, finds a cruious kind of bean being on a market stall. It is claimed the beans, derived from the scarab beetle, have magic powers; specifically the power to guarantee the brith of a male infant and when the entomologist does some research in to the matter, discovering the incidence of female birth has become increasingly rare, he is left in no doubt that the world has entered intoa critical phase of its history. As this beloved daughter Beatrice approaches maturity, the entomologist and his partner question the validity of gender bias, and attempt to redress the growing imbalance before it reaches irreversible proportions. But in the poverty and famine of the South, where male children can mean the difference between survival and starvation, the popularity of the scarab beans is already taking devastating effect.
This book offers a lucid inquiry into the precise meaning of one of the most misapplied words and concepts in our language, and one that has given rise to some of the most heated passions and crimes throughout history: identity. The notion of identity be it religious, ethnic, national, or other has been one of the fundamental questions of philosophy from Socrates to Freud. In this series of reflections, the author, a Lebanese who now lives in France, considers how we define ourselves and what identity has meant and continues to mean in different cultures.
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