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Kissing Hands and Knees: Hegemony and Hierarchy in Sharfa Discourse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Brinkley Messick
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Abstract

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Two categories of Muslim legal texts are utilized in Yemen. In the methodological literature I examine conceptions of common sense and consensus, and the relation of knowledge and ignorance. In the applied literature, I review egalitarian and hierarchical themes. The hegemonic qualities of such texts derive from their appropriation of ordinary wisdom and from the shifting polyvocality of the texts themselves.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 22 , Issue 4: Special Issue: Law and Ideology , 1988 , pp. 637 - 659
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

The development of my thinking about law has been stimulated by participation in the Amherst Seminar. I have benefited from comments on an earlier draft of this paper by Sally Merry and Barbara Yngvesson, and by Stefania Pandolfo and Uday Mehta, and helpful comments at a later stage were provided by members of the seminar, especially Adelaide Villmoare and Christine Harrington, and by two anonymous LSR reviewers.

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