Postcolonial Egypt
European mischief was typified by the Egyptian exhibition in Paris for Barnum's All World Show in the second half of the nineteenth century. The show itself was a huge display built to mimic old-fashioned Egypt architecture, designed down to minuscule detail such as dirt purposeful rubbed into paint to make the display look old. People could come to the All World show to see the display and feel that they were learning about other cultures and peoples. Simultaneously people could feel good about strengthening their intellect and their brave curiosity concerning other cultures while reinforcing racist stereotypes about non-Western culture. This curiosity and intellect were the justifications Europeans used to explain their relationship to Egypt. This gaze was thought to help Europeans know Egyptians and other Middle Eastern people, and finally, that without these types of interactions, Europeans would never know and never be able to dominate the Orient. Mitchell's response to the European gaze and its justification is that there are reasons beneath the espoused, public reasons. Through the European gaze, Europeans could see others without seeing themselves, a positions of true power. They were able to remove themselves fr
4) Cairo was transformed hugely to enable Europeans to establish discipline over the city. As I mentioned above, the streets were widened and houses and businesses were given numbers. Due to these changes, any person could find any place they desired. In Cairo before, only people familiar with a space could navigate within that space. This change majorly affected the experience of living within Cairo. Bourdieu's conversation about the Kabyle house reveals the difference between 19th century conceptualizations of space and 20th century Algerian conceptions. In 19th century European understands of space, plans, functionality, and display of class status were the three determining factors behind the construction of home. Egyptian and Algerian homes were analyzed through this framework. Bourdieu's analysis of a Algerian home reveals how ineffective and wrongheaded it is to force a classic Western analysis on Middle Eastern space. In a Kabyle house, things are kept in places via a system of associations and oppositions. These are NOT symbolic NOR functional. Everything within the house is polarized into systems of opposites. This order is not Western and should not be defined as such -- it is better to read the space as a balancing space, concerned and attentive to the world's fer
Some common words found in the essay are:
Middle Eastern, Europeans Egypt, Middle East, Orient Mitchell's, East Foucault, People World, Barnum's World, Egyptian Algerian, , middle eastern, european gaze, kabyle house, europeans egypt, closely watched, 19th century, middle east, gain control,
Approximate Word count = 875
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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