Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T06:38:12.045Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Trickster in Egypt's January 25th Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2013

Walter Armbrust*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, Faculty of Oriental Studies

Abstract

The term “counter-revolution” evokes a straightforward contestation of political claims in a revolutionary situation. But contestation is not a zero-sum game: this side wins; the other side loses, and power remains the same. A revolutionary situation is unpredictable. New formulations of political claims may emerge in a protracted moment of “liminal crisis”—a kind of political ritual with no master of ceremonies capable of ending it. Indeed, the meaning of the political prize itself might be open to reinterpretation. My paper examines counter-revolution through the lens of Taufiq ‘Ukasha, an Egyptian talk show host and former member of the deposed National Democratic Party. Since the Revolution ‘Ukasha has become increasingly prominent as an unacknowledged spokesman for Egypt's Military Council, which assumed executive powers in the wake of the Mubarak regime's collapse. I argue that ‘Ukasha should not be understood simply as a filul—a remnant of the old regime. He is rather a “trickster,” a creature at home in the betwixt-and-between of open-ended liminality, and as such not an instrument of a socially grounded political power. In an environment in which the usual points of social and political orientation are called into question, the significance of a trickster is that he or she can become an object of emulation, an instrument of “schismogenesis”—the creation of a new social formation. A trickster, as a creature of pure liminality, is particularly prone to generating perverted forms of social knowledge. In ‘Ukasha's case, this new social formation is an unprecedented formulation of Egyptian militarism.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

‘Abd al-Sami‘, ‘Amru. 2012. Wa I‘lama! Al-Ahram, 24 Feb. At: http://digital.ahram.org.eg/articles.aspx?Serial=878317&eid=11335 (accessed 1 Apr. 2013).Google Scholar
Abdelazim, Hazem. 2012. Ja'ani al-Bayan al-Tali. Facebook Wall Photos of Abdelazim Hazem. At: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151091309960447&set=a.10150283835485447.500464.784000446&type=1&theater (accessed 4 Mar. 2012).Google Scholar
Abu al-Ghayt, Muhammad. 2011. Al-Fuqara’ Awwalan. Jidariyya (blog). At: http://gedarea.blogspot.com/2011/06/normal-0-false-false-false.html (accessed 5 Mar. 2012).Google Scholar
Abu-Lughod, Lila. 2004. Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Andreas, Joel. 2007. The Structure of Charismatic Mobilization: A Case Study of Rebellion during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. American Sociological Review 72, 3: 434–58.Google Scholar
‘Asifat Ghadab min Fatwa Maghrabiyya Tubih lil-Rajil Jama‘ Zaujitihi al-Mayyita. 2012. Posted 21 Feb. At: MBC.net http://tinyurl.com/d9u2toc (accessed 1 Apr. 2013).Google Scholar
Babcock-Abrahams, Barbara. 1975. A Tolerated Margin of Mess: The Trickster and His Tales Reconsidered. Journal of the Folklore Institute 11, 3: 147–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977 [1972]. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Nice, Richard, trans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caton, Steven. 1999. Anger Be Now Thy Song: The Anthropology of an Event. Princeton: Institute for Advanced Study, Occasional Paper no. 5. At: http://www.sss.ias.edu/files/papers/paperfive.pdf (accessed 3 Apr. 2012).Google Scholar
Checker, Melissa, Vine, David, and Wali, Alaka. 2010. From the Public Anthropology Review Editors: A Sea Change in Anthropology? Public Anthropology Reviews. American Anthropologist n.s. 112, 1: 56.Google Scholar
Dresch, Paul and James, Wendy. 2000. Fieldwork and the Passage of Time. In Dresch, P. and James, W., eds., Anthropologists In a Wider World: Essays on Field Research. Oxford: Berghahn, 125.Google Scholar
Edelman, Marc. 2001. Social Movements: Changing Paradigms and Forms of Politics. Annual Review of Anthropology 30: 285317.Google Scholar
Egypt's ‘Plans for Farewell Intercourse Law so Husbands Can Have Sex with DEAD Wives’ Branded Completely False. 2012. Daily Mail. Posted 29 May to correct a story posted on 26 Apr. At: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2135434/Egypts-plans-farewell-intercourse-law-husbands-sex-DEAD-wives-branded-completely-false.html (accessed 1 Apr. 2013).Google Scholar
Fahmy, Khalid. 2012. The Truth about Fayza. Egypt Independent, 26 Feb. At: http://www.egyptindependent.com/opinion/truth-about-fayza (accessed 20 Jan. 2013).Google Scholar
Fernández, Belén. 2011. The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Field, Nathan and Hamam, Ahmad. 2009. Salafi Satellite TV in Egypt. Arab Media and Society 8. At: http://www.arabmediasociety.com/?article=712 (accessed 27 Apr. 2012).Google Scholar
Foran, John, ed. 1997. Theorizing Revolutions. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ghannam, Farha. 2011. Mobility, Liminality, and Embodiment in Urban Egypt. American Ethnologist 38, 4: 790800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. 1984. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Gupta, Akhil and Ferguson, James. 1997. Discipline and Practice: ‘The Field’ as Site, Method, and Location in Anthropology. In Gupta, A. and Ferguson, J., eds., Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science. Berkeley: University of California Press, 246.Google Scholar
Hägglund, Helena and Carlshamre, Sam. 2012. Necrophilia Law: How Western Media Savors Islamophobia. Egypt Independent, 9 May. At: http://www.egyptindependent.com/opinion/necrophilia-law-how-western-media-savors-islamophobia (accessed 1 Apr. 2013).Google Scholar
Hasan, Radwa. 2012. ‘Ukasha Yuharrid Zubat al-Gaysh Ghayr Mubashir ‘ala al-Inqilab ‘ala al-Maglis al-‘Askari. Musta‘gil News, 22 July. At: http://www.mesta3gelnews.com/post.php?id=2162.Google Scholar
‘Hassan’ Yanfa Tawarrutahu fi ‘Mauqa‘at al-Gamal.’ 2012. Al-Masri al-Yaum, 27 Feb. At: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/node/682646 (accessed 27 Apr. 2012).Google Scholar
Hirschkind, Charles. 2006. The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Horvath, Agnes and Thomassen, Bjørn. 2008. Mimetic Errors in Liminal Schismogenesis: On the Political Anthropology of the Trickster. International Political Anthropology 1, 1: 324.Google Scholar
Koepping, Klaus-Peter. 1985. Absurdity and Hidden Truth: Cunning Intelligence and Grotesque Body Images as Manifestations of the Trickster. History of Religions 24, 3: 191214.Google Scholar
Marzolph, Ulrich. 2005. Juha in the Arabian Nights. Journal of Arabic Literature 36, 3: 311–22.Google Scholar
McAdam, Douglas, Tarrow, Sidney, and Tilly, Charles. 2001. Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Moustafa, Tamir. 2007. The Struggle for Constitutional Power: Law, Politics, and Economic Development in Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Musaji, Sheila. 2012. About that Necrophilia Law. American Muslim, 27 Apr. At: http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/about-that-egyptian-necrophilia-law/0019097 (accessed 1 Apr. 2013).Google Scholar
Nash, June, ed. 2004. Social Movements: An Anthropological Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Norkus, Zenonas. 2007. Troubles with Mechanisms: Problems of the ‘Mechanistic Turn’ in Historical Sociology and Social History. Journal of the Philosophy of History 1: 160200.Google Scholar
Ortner, Sherry. 1984. Theory in Anthropology since the Sixties. Comparative Studies in Society and History 26, 1: 126–66.Google Scholar
Pelton, Robert. 1980. The Trickster in West Africa: A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Peterson, Mark. 2011. Connected in Cairo: Growing Up Cosmopolitan in the Modern Middle East. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Radin, Paul. 1956. The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology; with a Commentary by Karl Kerényi and Carl G. Jung. New York: Philosophical Library.Google Scholar
Rakha, Youssef. 2012. Tawfik Okasha and the Amazingly Appalling Atrociousness of the Fellahin. Al-Ahram Online, 22 Jan. At: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/31509/Opinion/Tawfik-Okasha-and-the-amazingly-appalling-atrociou.aspx (accessed 4 Mar. 2012).Google Scholar
Ryzova, Lucie. 2011. The Battle of Muhammad Mahmud Street: Teargas, Hair Gel and Tramadol. Jadaliyya, 28 Nov. At: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3312/the-battle-of-muhammad-mahmud-street_teargas-hair- (accessed 5 Mar. 2012).Google Scholar
Ryzova, Lucie. 2013. The Age of the Efendiyya: Passages to Modernity in National-Colonial Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sakr, Naomi. 2007. Arab Television Today. London: I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Sakr, Naomi. 2013. Transformations in Egyptian Journalism. London: I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Selbin, Eric. 1997. Revolution in the Real World: Bringing Agency Back In. In Foran, John, ed., Theorizing Revolutions. London: Routledge, 118–32.Google Scholar
Sewell, William. 2005. Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Starrett, Gregory. 2010. The Varieties of Secular Experience. Comparative Studies in Society and History 52, 3: 626–51.Google Scholar
Szakolczai, Arpad. 2009. Liminality and Experience: Structuring Transitory Situations and Transformative Events. International Political Anthropology 2, 1: 141–72.Google Scholar
Ta‘rif bi-Fadilat al-Shaykh Muhammad Hassan. 2012. At: http://www.mohamedhassan.org/ta3reef%20belshiekh.htm (accessed 27 Apr. 2012).Google Scholar
Taufiq Yahya Ibrahim ‘Ukasha. 2012. Bio of ‘Ukasha on the Hizb Misr al-Qaumi website. At: http://egypt-national.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15%3A2011-05-22-19-12-39&catid=2%3A2010-12-09-22-47-00&Itemid=4 (accessed 26 Apr. 2012).Google Scholar
Thomassen, Bjørn. 2009. The Uses and Meaning of Liminality. International Political Anthropology 2, 1: 527.Google Scholar
Thomassen, Bjørn. 2012. Notes towards an Anthropology of Political Revolutions. Comparative Studies in Society and History 54, 3: 679706.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 2006. Regimes and Repertoires. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles and Goodin, Robert. 2006. It Depends. In Goodin, R. and Tilly, C., eds., The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 334.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor. 1967. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor. 1968. Myth and Symbol. In Sills, David, ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Volume 10. New York: Macmillan, 576–82.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor. 1969. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Cornell: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor. 1979. Frame, Flow and Reflection: Ritual and Drama as Public Liminality. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 6, 4: 465–99.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor. 1980. Dramas and Stories about Them. Critical Inquiry 7, 1: 141–68.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor. 1982. From Ritual to Theatre. New York: PAJ Publications.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor. 1986. Dewey, Dilthey, and Drama: An Essay in the Anthropology of Experience. In Turner, Victor and Bruner, Edward, eds., The Anthropology of Experience. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 3344.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor. 1988. The Anthropology of Performance. New York: PAJ Publications.Google Scholar
al-Ughniyya al-Rasmiyya lil-Duktur Taufiq ‘Ukasha—Ana Fil. 2011. At: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2y_PBpZDYc (accessed 22 July 2012).Google Scholar
Van Gennep, Arnold. 2004 [1909]. The Rites of Passage. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Weber, Donald. 1995. From Limen to Border: A Meditation on the Legacy of Victor Turner for American Cultural Studies. American Quarterly 47, 3 (Sept.): 525–36.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1947. The Theory of Economic and Social Organization. Henderson, A. M. and Parsons, Talcott, trans. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wickham-Crowley, Timothy. 1997. Structural Theories of Revolution. In Foran, John, ed., Theorizing Revolutions. London: Routledge, 3670.Google Scholar
Worsley, Peter. 1968. The Trumpet Shall Sound: A Study of ‘Cargo’ Cults in Melanesia. New York: Schocken.Google Scholar
Wynn, Lisa. 2007. Pyramids and Nightclubs: A Travel Ethnography of Arab and Western Imaginations of Egypt. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar