THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE SEWING MACHINE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Abstract

Can we write the social history of an object? It surely has been done, since we have studies dealing with such diverse things as items of clothing or furniture, the Persian rug, musical instruments, the machine gun, or even the potato. While focusing our investigation on a new mechanical or technological device or method, we must not, of course, neglect the human inventors, distributors and consumers. Even the introduction of small objects or inventions can sometimes have far-reaching consequences and they therefore qualify for a place in social history in the sense of Charles Tilly's How people lived the big changes.1 Do machines make history? remains a crucial question. Although we would like to put man (and woman) in the center, we tend to accept the premise that machines (as well) do, with the proviso that certain 'cultural' must be taken into consideration.2 This, indeed, is the point which needs elucidation: labor, gender, and social conditions differ from country to country, from era to era, or from one social class to another. We also have to bear in mind, that there is no point in repeating what is obvious or banal with regard to the introduction of new European or American inventions into the Middle East (which anyway is complex as a region). We have to sort out those aspects which are different and worth giving thought