Not lost in translation: the influence of Clifford Geertz's work and life on anthropology in Morocco

Abstract

A May 2000 conference in Sefrou publicly recognised the impact of Clifford Geertz's work and professional life on doing sociology and anthropology in Morocco. Yet recognition of his work in how sociology and anthropology were taught in Morocco grew only incrementally from the late 1960s to the present. One obstacle was language. Geertz's Islam Observed (1968a) was translated into French only in 1992; a translation into Arabic is virtually unobtainable in Morocco; and his book-length essay, ‘Suq’ (Geertz 1979), appeared in French only in 2003. In the late 1960s, Morocco's educational system was also in the midst of Arabisation. Part of this essay seeks to capture the audience for anthropology in the late 1960s and early 1970s, describing the context in which the writings of Geertz and Gellner were initially received in Morocco. Then, drawing on my experience in leading a faculty seminar in Arabic for faculty in history and sociology and especially a parallel one for graduate students in sociology in 1992, I indicate how Geertz's ideas and others began to enter the Arabic-language curriculum. Finally, relying on a recent book by sociologist Abdelrhani Moundib (2006), a student in the 1992 student seminar who currently teaches at Rabat's Université Mohammed V–Agdal, I analyse how Geertz's ideas are transmitted in a primarily Arabic university curriculum.