Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant. Inalienable Property and Market Economies

纽约市立大学研究生Nada Moumtaz将在David Harvey博士的指导下，对与资本主义市场经济共存的前资本主义伊斯兰形式的财产进行人类学研究。她的研究重点将是WAQF，这是一个永远致力于虔诚目标的慈善捐赠机构。因此，WAQF是不可剥夺的财产，即不能通过出售或其他方式从一个人转移到另一个人的财产。WAQF曾经在穆斯林世界很常见，但在20世纪被抛弃，因为它被认为是前现代的。然而，最近WAQF正在经历一场复兴。研究人员将通过对勒班农WAQF的过去和现在的案例研究来调查这一现象，询问宗教价值制度如何与市场经济相交，以及两者兼而有之的目的是什么。由于WAQF植根于伊斯兰法关于慈善财产捐赠的长期传统，研究人员必须将与该传统相关的当代意义和实践联系起来。为此，正在通过19世纪奥斯曼贝鲁特伊斯兰宗教基金的基础文件、租约、交换和账目档案收集数据，这些档案现在位于奥斯曼帝国档案、伊斯兰(伊斯兰)法庭记录、家庭档案、宗教学者私人图书馆和报纸中。将使用人种学方法，采访捐赠者、建筑师和关心世界质量基金的政府代表，并跟踪目前正在建设的新的世界质量基金的轨迹，对当代世界质量基金的做法进行研究。然后将对历史和当代材料进行定量和定性的分析，以记录WAQF实践和人们如何理解市场、价值和财产等关键概念的变化。研究之所以重要，是因为它有助于从理论上理解当代资本主义的各种形式和资本主义内部可能存在的不同价值机制。随着资本主义在世界范围内蔓延并产生新的挑战，在微观层面上理解资本主义的发展，特别是在当地背景下，具有越来越重要的意义。这项研究还将有助于社会科学家的教育。

City University of New York graduate student, Nada Moumtaz, with the guidance of Dr. David Harvey, will undertake anthropological research on pre-capitalist Islamic forms of property that co-exist with capitalist, market economies. The focus of her research will be the waqf, a charitable endowment dedicated to a pious purpose forever. As such, the waqf is inalienable property, that is, property that cannot be transferred from one person to another through sale or other means. The waqf was once common in the Muslim World, but discarded in the 20th century because it was considered pre-modern. Recently, however, the waqf has been undergoing a revival. The researcher will be investigating this phenomenon, through a case study of the past and present of the waqf in Lebannon, asking how religious regimes of value intersect with the market economy, and what purpose is served by having both.Because the waqf is grounded in a long tradition in Islamic Law surrounding charitable property donations, the researcher must contextualize contemporary meanings and practices in relation to that tradition. For this purpose, data are being gathered through archival collections of foundation documents, leases, exchanges, and accountings of waqf in nineteenth century Ottoman Beirut, now located in Ottoman archives, shari'a (Islamic) court records, family archives, private libraries of religious scholars, and newspapers. Research on contemporary waqf practices will be carried out using ethnographic methods, interviewing donors, architects, and government representatives concerned with waqfs, and following the trajectory of new waqfs currently being constructed. The historical and contemporary materials will then be analzyed both quantitatively and qualitatively, to document changes in waqf practices and in the how people understand such key concepts as market, value, and property.The research is important because it contributes to the theoretical understanding of the varieties of contemporary capitalism and the different regimes of value that can exist within capitalism. As capitalism spreads in the world and generates new challenges, micro-level understandings of its development in particular local contexts have increasing relevance. The research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.