An Anthropological Inquiry into Egypt's Alternative Modernity: A Case Study from Karate Practitioners Communities

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24720403
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cultural anthropology/Folklore
• Research Institution: National Museum of Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Aishima Hatsuki 国立民族学博物館, 民族社会研究部, 外来研究員 (40622171)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: エジプト / 都市中流層 / モダニティ / 伝統 / スポーツ / 師弟関係 / 友情 / 教養

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study explored social class and body culture through the lens of karate practitioner communities in urban Egypt. I approached Muslim bodies as a contested arena in which a variety of ways to be “modern” is negotiated. Since karate became widely popular in the 1980s, it has established firm roots in youth culture to the extent that some Egyptian Muslims regard karate as a Sunna (an authentic tradition of the Prophet Muhammad). For instance, although karate and classical ballet require comparable body movements, the former is widely accepted among the educated middle classes as halal (lawful in Islam, morally safe and sound), a sport for young girls and boys to try out, while the latter is considered haram (unlawful). While halal and haram belong to the idioms of Islamic law, in order to trace the roots of karate’s popularity it is important to analyse such discourse in relation to the modernity and work ethics that Egyptian middle classes subscribe to.

Free Research Field

社会人類学