Fieldwork Of Morocco Summary

Reflections of Fieldwork of Morocco was an enlightening account of an American anthropologist experiences in late 1960s Morocco. While not directly related to the Jewish population and their practices in the country, the book it provided essential background information to better understand the basics as well as the subtleties of Moroccan culture. Understanding the majority culture will definitely be helpful in understand how Moroccan Jews fit into the overall Moroccan experience. Rabinow’s exploration of the north African nation exposed several interesting aspects of Moroccan life, like the legacy of French colonialism, the dual purpose of separation, and dominance and submission in Moroccan interactions.
It wasn’t just the cultural elements

As an outsider, he had to deal with his informant preventing to get a “true” sense of the culture. This leads him to blindly trying to find the cultural limits, and unfortunately he didn’t have the luxury of being granted a faux-pas leniency card. When Mittleman went to Morocco, he was allowed to gradually get a feel for the borders of a nebulous cloud of what is appropriate and is not. Instead of being allowed to find the rules himself, the people who he interacted with decided to test his limits. They interpreted his status as Western foreigner as being easily taken advantage of. It’s actually kind of funny how many frustrating and annoying situations he landed in because of the Moroccan practice of testing the peers to find their limits and “ball busting” to establish a hierarchy. Rabinow, as an anthropologist, was caught between maintaining a friendly relationship or telling them that he’s had enough. During one of these incidents, his informant, Malik, asks Rabinow “Wash sekren?—are you drunk?” when Rabinow tells him he wants to be alone(114). This was absolutely baffling to me. As the anthropologist late finds out, Moroccan culture deeply values independence, and self sufficiency, but Malik was so deeply hurt by Rabinows desire for solitude. Not being seen as submissive and dependent is main goal of Moroccan interactions. Its so important that even accepting the generosity to the host is a threat to “their claim of independence.” (49.) Something as simple as giving a gift is loaded with the pressure of establishing dominance. How can a culture that prizes independence asks for so much from someone? And on the same hand how can Malik be hurt by someone asserting their need to be alone? Its interesting to see as foreigner, Rabinow’s actions are received so differently