Cutting the Face

Kinship, State and Social Media Conflict in Networked Jordan

in Journal of Legal Anthropology
Author:
Geoffrey Hughes
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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/jla.2018.510204
Keywords:
alternative dispute resolution; criminalisation; detachment; Facebook; Jordan; social change; tribalism; violence
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Abstract

The local uptake of new media in the Middle East is shaped by deep histories of imperialism, state building, resistance and accommodation. In contemporary Jordan, social media is simultaneously encouraging identification with tribes and undermining their gerontocratic power structures. Senior men stress their own importance as guarantors (‘faces’), who restore order following conflicts, promising to pay their rivals a large surety if their kin break the truce. Yet, ‘cutting the face’ (breaking truces) remains an alternative, one often facilitated by new technologies that allow people to challenge pre-existing structures of communication and authority. However, the experiences of journalists and other social media mavens suggest that the liberatory promise of the new technology may not be enough to prevent its reintegration into older patterns of social control.

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Journal of Legal Anthropology

Cover Journal of Legal Anthropology
Article Category:
Research Articles
Page Count:
23
Keywords:
alternative dispute resolution; criminalisation; detachment; Facebook; Jordan; social change; tribalism; violence
Print Publication Date:
01 Jan 2018
Online Publication Date:
01 Jan 2018
Copyright:
© Journal of Legal Anthropology 2018

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