Skip to main content

Distributed for HAU

Suq

Geertz on the Market

Edited and with an Introduction by Lawrence Rosen

Distributed for HAU

Suq

Geertz on the Market

Edited and with an Introduction by Lawrence Rosen
A 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.

HAU image

View all books from HAU

Reviews

“At a time when there is a desperate need for better understandings of the Muslim world, this essay by Clifford Geertz, brilliantly introduced by his fieldwork partner and colleague Lawrence Rosen, once again illustrates the importance of cultural anthropology in providing insights into different peoples and places. This is anthropology at its best.”

Akbar Ahmed, author of "Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity"

“This remarkable book is a tribute to Geertz’s capacity to combine observation, interpretation, and comparison. It is a product of the first phase of his long career, when his main inspirations were from Max Weber and his colleagues at the Committee for the Study of New Nations at The University of Chicago. Geertz’s analysis of the bazaar remains unmatched in its attention to social detail and its cultural grasp of an economic form.“

Arjun Appadurai, author of "Banking on Words: The Failure of Language in the Age of Derivative Finance"

“The brilliance of 'Sūq" lies in its analysis of terms well-known in anthropology, but usually for their political valences (broker, clientelism, dependency); the way it shows their pertinence in the marketplace and demonstrates how exchange is so much more than a merely economic transaction. Geertz demonstrates how the bazaar is a cultural form, emblematic of society, an ‘analytic idea’ as much as an institution.“

Deborah James, author of "Money from Nothing: Indebtedness and Aspiration in South Africa"

Table of Contents

Introduction
On Sefrou: the market in context
Transcription note
Suq: the bazaar economy in Sefrou
Notes
Annexes
Index

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press