Suq: Geertz on the MarketA formative ethnography of the relationship between markets and social life, back in print. Originally published in 1979, Clifford Geertz’s essay on the Moroccan bazaar is a classic ethnographic account of the interplay of economic, social, and religious lives in the bustle of transaction. Drawing on years of fieldwork in the Middle Atlas town of Sefrou, Geertz explores how actors from diverse backgrounds assess the worth and meaning of other people’s wares, words, and ways of doing business. He shows how the search for market information, so central to the theorization of markets by economists, is here based on careful appraisals of social relations, embedded in understandings of the broader institutional environment of the market town and its hinterlands. With a richness of insights procured for generations of readers, Geertz’s essay on the sūq is a model of and for the craft of ethnographic theory. Long out of print, it is republished here in a stand-alone edition introduced by Lawrence Rosen. |
Common terms and phrases
Abdelqader activities amin Annex Arab artisans ateliers auctioneers baker bargaining bazaar economy Berber butchers buyer caravan class of owner clientship Clifford Clifford Geertz cloth seller commercial countryside craft cultural Darqawa exchange Figure French funduq Gate Geertz grocers habus henta institutions Islam Istiqlal Jews klām kyt jib kyt mkn labor large number Lawrence Rosen less makhzen marketplace Maroc Marrakech means medina Medreg Meknes mellah merchants Middle Atlas Moroccan Morocco mosque muhtaseb Mulay Muslim nisba class occupations owner and type particular pattern periodic market qadi qirad Quran RA bql RA kyt religious role SA bql șdiq sebaibis Sefrou Sefrou region Sefrou town selling shoemakers Sidi SLAWI social society sort SRB bql SRB kdr suwwaqs Tafilalt tailors Thursday market tion Tourneau traditional tribal Troin urban Vacant wool zawia