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GEA 3635

Study Guide for the Second Exam – Now Complete, Final Update 2/28

Note: Don’t forget to study the cities map lists

 

 

It’s Money: Regional Economies

  1. What is World Systems Theory?  What is internal colonialism?
  2. What is Cultural Economy?
  3. What caused the post-1950 population boom?   What problems has this created?
  4. Where did the Silk Road go? What types of goods moved on it?  What were prices like in the West?
  5. What moved in the Trans-Saharan Trade?
  6. What are the two types of camel, how many humps do they have, and where are they from? 
  7. What is a Dhow?
  8. Until WWII, did the region net export or import food?  Now?
  9. What are the three types of land ownership and what typifies each?
  10. What is the biggest cash crop (non-edible) in Egypt?   Why are Olives a good crop for Mediterranean climates?  What are dates grown on?  
  11. What is Qat?  Where is it grown? How is it used?  Does it have to be fresh?   How did Qat probably help local agriculture in the 1980’s (6 ways)?
  12. What happened to agriculture in the late 19th century? What happened to the artisans under European colonialism?  Where did the goods that replaced the artisans’ goods come from?
  13. Which country was the first major tourist destination outside of Europe?  What countries have tourism sectors today?   Is the service sector important?
  14. Which countries followed a capitalist path post WWII?  Nationalization path?  What is that?
  15. What is the leading export for the region as a whole? What is manufactured in local factories?  What is imported?
  16. What is unique about government sectors in the region? What and where are Qualified Economic Zones?
  17. Do the countries spend much on military expenses?
  18. What are remittances? What countries receive US aid?
  19. What is Mitchell’s main argument in America’s Egypt? And what is the “image” he says dominates development literature about the country? Where is all of Egypt’s grain going? Is Egypt’s agricultural land productive, even for small farms? Why is farming technology not a good solution for Egypt? What have been the results of US AID efforts at decentralization? What does US AID money get spent on?

 

Oil: It’s Pretty Important

  1. Why has the Arab side of the Persian Gulf undergone the most radical change of fortunes in the history of the world?
  2. What is inelasticity of demand? Why has oil had it? Is it good for non-oil economic development?
  3. What the eternal fires?
  4. Who headed Standard Oil? How did it get its monopoly? What happened to it?
  5. What used to be called Anglo Persian Oil Company? Why did oil’s importance increase post WWI?
  6. Who owned the Iraqi Petroleum Company? What was the Red Line agreement?
  7. What is Aramco? Where are Americans located who work for Aramco?
  8. Which is the biggest North African producer?
  9. Which country has the largest reserves? What is the argument about Canada’s position?
  10. What areas of the world produce the highest % of their reserves annually? Who will have oil longer?
  11. What Ghawar? Safaniya-Khafji? North Field? Is Oil in the Middle East easy to produce?
  12. What three ways is crude oil named? What is cracking? What are the two types of natural gas? What is flaring?
  13. What are some pros of using pipelines? What are Very Large Crude Carriers?
  14. What were the Seven Sisters effect on the price of oil?
  15. What does OPEC stand for? Why is it a cartel? Why was it formed? Who were the original members?
  16. What was the Arab Oil Embargo? Why is it called the “largest transfer of wealth” in history?
  17. What effect did high prices have on conservation? Field conservation? Search for alternative energy? Non-OPEC producers? Cheating?
  18. What are petrodollars and the debt crisis?
  19. What happened to the Gulf when oil prices dipped? How are Gulf countries adding value to their oil? What other areas are they looking towards?

 

Orientalism

  1. What is discourse? What is a Panopticon? What is hegemony?
  2. Where did Edward Said come from? What did he argue for on behalf the Palestinians?
  3. Who was Edward Lane? Richard Burton?
  4. What are Said’s three meanings of Orientalism?
  5. What does he mean that the Orient is not an inert fact of nature, nor completely disconnected from reality?
  6. What is the relationship between Orient and Occident, and what does that have to do with hegemony and positional superiority? Why were the constraints of Orientalism productive, not inhibiting?
  7. What does he mean that “less, rather than more, partial knowledge” is not apolitical?
  8. What is the importance of making a critique that takes culture into account, not just politics or economy?

 

Islamists, Protests and Politics

  1. What is a transnational political movement and why are they enabled by globalization?
  2. Why is Islamism a transnational political movement, what two other movements have widely impacted the region in earlier times?
  3. What do Islamists have in common, and what did they rise against the background of?
  4. What is the status of Islam in rural areas? Have Islamists taken over any Arab governments?
  5. Has Islam become more political in the 20th century? More doctrinaire?
  6. What is Salafi? Tafkir? Tathiq? Taqnin? What are the two types of jihad?
  7. Who was Hasan al-Bana? How did the Muslim Brotherhood begin? What innovations did it employ to separate it from other Islamic charities? Was it purely “traditional”? Did it have an effect on Islamism at large? What type of model did the Muslim Brotherhood set?
  8. Who was the leadership of the Muslim split between after al-Bana’s death and what position did each person take (ie liberal? Moderate? Violent?) What book did the moderate write? The radical’s book?
  9. What is the Muslim Brotherhood’s legal status in Egypt? Practical status? Why did they do well in the election?
  10. Where else in the region is the Brotherhood found? How were they received in Jordan? Syria? KSA?
  11. Who are most mass Islamist movements most popular among? Why (the why is important)?
  12. How is state Islam different in KSA from Muslim Brotherhood Islam? Are Berbers and Kurds generally Islamists?
  13. What is the AKP? What was their constituency? Are they moderate?
  14. What were the key ingredients that led to the Arab Spring uprising?
  15. What type of cities were key to the uprisings and why? What about Tunisia made it the first place for a successful revolution?
  16. Why are the revolutions in Bahrain and Syria different from the others?
  17. Are Islamist movements varied? Are Islamists influenced by forms of thought besides Islam?

 

Israeli Palestinian Conflict and Geopolitics

  1. What is Geo-politics? What is geo-political conflict? What is the case study of Israel/Palestine “about”?
  2. What was on the rise in Europe in the 1880’s? Who was Theodor Herzl? What is Zionism and how is it related to Nationalism?
  3. What was the goal of the World Zionist Organization? Why was Palestine chosen as the place for a homeland?
  4. What happened in 1897? Was it big news in Palestine?
  5. Was Palestine an Ottoman province? Who lived there? What did they think of themselves as? What did they largely do?
  6. Who did the Zionists lobby first? Which country agreed to support the Zionists? What did they argue to get British support?
  7. What was Hussein McMahon? Sykes-Picot? What was the Balfour Declaration and what did each side think it meant? Were the residents of Palestine consulted?
  8. By 1920, what had the Arabs figured out? What happened in 1935? In 1936? In 1937?
  9. What did the British propose to do in 1937? Why did Arabs not like the terms of partition?
  10. What happens after WWII to British control? What does the UN vote for in 1947?
  11. What happened in 1948? What does Israel end up with?
  12. How many Arabs become refugees? What does Al-Nakba mean? Where did the refugee end up? What happened to the land of those who fled? Were there Arabs who remained in Israel? What happened to them?
  13. What does Israel end up with after 1967? Why did Egypt and Syria attack in 1973? Who was Golda Meir? What were the Camp David Accords?
  14. How did the nature of the conflict change post-1973? What was the PLO? Who headed it? Where all was it based over the years?
  15. What is an intifada? Which PM stepped up settlement creation? Where did the Palestinians work for low wages? What are Hamas and Islamic Jihad and why did Israel support them?
  16. Who was Yitzak Rabin? Who was Hamas, and why did Israel originally fund them?
  17. What happened in 1993? What questions remained unresolved? Who killed Rabin?
  18. What two things happen in 2000? Who gets elected in 2001? What happens in 2002? 2004? 2006?
  19. Is it just ethnic/religious conflict? Why or why not?
  20. Why does it suck for both sides? Are there efforts for peace?

 

Gender and the Middle East

  1. Are gender relations in the region solely determined by religion? Is there diversity in the region in terms of gender relations? Are women and men in the region actively trying to reshape gender relations?
  2. What is the importance of autonomous space in highly patriarchal societies? Did social science always notice it?
  3. Did laws used to be as uniformly applied before the coming of modern states? Could this be a good thing?
  4. What position in the household used to be especially powerful for women? At whose expense did this power come?
  5. What were some outlets for a more expansive life many women in the region participated in?
  6. What form of mobility were lost for Bedouin women when they became settled? What happened to clans once urbanization began to take hold?
  7. Did western lifestyles and fashion reach the region? Did daughters necessarily follow the fashion of their mothers? Does wearing modest dress mean a woman wants to return to the 7th century?
  8. What are some technologies that are shifting gender relations in Saudi Arabia?
  9. Is violence against women a problem in both secular and religious families? Should only “exotic” forms of violence against women be focused on?
  10. What does reinterpreting Islam have to do with women’s legal status in the region?
  11. What were some of the arguments used by Qasim Amin and other early Egyptian reformers to change women’s status in Islamic society?
  12. Did the secular states deliver all the reforms to women’s lives they promised? Why did they promise them? Which country did the most after independence? Were women’s groups outside the state tolerated?
  13. What country saw a major overhaul of its family law in 2004? How was it accomplished? What rights did women receive?
  14. What two groups were early local women leaders divided into? Who was Huda al-Sha’arawi? Zaynab al-Ghazali?
  15. What type of theory was Nawal al Saddawi especially influential in? What group did she found? Who was Fatima Mernissi and what did she highlight?
  16. What was the appeal of nationalism for women activists? How did they contribute? Were these contributions recognized after independence?
  17. What was one area of women’s education that improved significantly after independence? What parts of the region are now leading in women’s education?
  18. What happened to women’s legal rights in compromises between Islamists and states? Are feminism and Islamism completely opposed, and if they have some ideas in common, what are they?
  19. Is modesty in dress required for both sexes under Islam? Did Islamic lands or Christian lands first grant inheritance rights to women? Are all types of veiling the same?
  20. What helped to politicize the veil during colonialism? Why do some women like wearing it? Why especially do many Gulf Arab men and women choose to wear “traditional” clothing? Why do others not?
  21. What happened to women’s artisan occupations under colonialism? What type of skill level did many of the jobs that became available to women have in the 60’s and 70’s?
  22. What does Longva say about how women were written about? Does she think “tradition” is static? What is the importance for Kuwaiti women of honor, dignity, and separation from expatriates? Are abayas about religion? Have abayas always been as prevalent as today? Why did bidoun women work more? Were Kuwaiti women completely absent from working?
  23. Is the situation faced by women uniform across the Middle East? Does unchanging culture determine women’s status? Are women in the region primarily victims (even if many of them face significant challenges)?

 

 

Let’s Rock: Pop Culture in the Middle East

  1. In the region, what became the language of nationalism, anti-colonialism and cultural renaissance? What is the feeling that results from this?
  2. What are the two competing cultural centers of the Arab speaking world? What other countries in the region have their own, non-Arabic pop culture?
  3. What country’s national conservatory taught many styles of classic and folk Arabic music?
  4. Who is considered the first Arab language musician making music for the masses? What is an operetta?
  5. Who is Umm Kulthum and where is she from? Muhammad Abd Al-Wahhab? Faird-Al Attash? Fairuz and where is she from? Where did Rai come from? What does it have to do with World Music? Where did it maintain popularity after being banned in its country of origin? Who is Hakim? Amr Diab?
  6. What country is the center of MTV style pop music? Who is Nancy Ajram? What role did music play in the Arab Spring?
  7. Did poetry remain popular longer here than other regions? Was poetry limited to nationalists?
  8. Why was printing slow to emerge in the Ottoman empire? Were newspapers just for distributing political news? What is al-Ahram?
  9. Was the length of novels shorter or longer compared to Europe? What were the five themes many novels followed? Where in the region have women writers been particularly successful recently?
  10. Who was Naguib Mahfouz? How did his philosophy change over his life? What were his most famous works known as? What award did he win in 1988?
  11. Did the colonial powers allow free speech? What about the newly independent states? What did writers do to get around censors? What country has the most active newspaper culture in the region?
  12. Where were many Egyptian artists and playwrights trained after independence?
  13. What were some common themes in mid-century films? What other country besides the two dominant cultural capitals has participated in film industry? Was nationalism an important aspect of films? Why was it so important to establish local culture industries after independence?
  14. What is Voice of the Arabs? Who owned much of the broadcast media after independence?
  15. What type of inexpensive programming is common on many channels in the region? What country produces popular soap operas? When are they played?
  16. What is MBC and where is it broadcast from? Future TV? Al-Jazeera? Al-Manar? What business besides television is Rotana in? Whose former staff makes up the core of Al-Jazeera? What type of programming besides news does Al-Manar broadcast?

 

Iraq: Some Quick Notes

  1. What Ottoman vilayets was Iraq made out of? What was split off? Who was the first monarch? Was he Sunni or Shi’i?
  2. Who was Nuri al-Said? Who did he align Iraq with?
  3. What party comes to take over Iraq? What do they spend money on? What decade was Iraq’s golden age?
  4. Who gets official control in 1979? Who does he attack? Why? Who supported this man? The country he was against?
  5. Who supported Sadaam when he invaded Kuwait? Why does he say he went in?
  6. What type of eco-terrorism did Iraqi troops commit in Kuwait?
  7. Where are the Sunnis located? The Shi’i? What has happened to mixed neighborhoods in Baghdad?
  8. Have the Kurds risen up in the past? What in the 1990’s helped them gain autonomy? What are their secure cities? Why are Turkomen and Christians particularly at risk?
  9. What was the problem with the Iraqi Governing Council? What happened to the Iraqi Army and senior Baathists?
  10. Who are Al-Sadr and Al-Sistani? Al-Maliki?