Analysis of Sociocultural Practices in Gulf, Egypt, Levant, Iran, Iraq

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the sociocultural practices prevalent in the Middle East, encompassing the Gulf region, Egypt, the Levant, Iran, and Iraq. It explores the significant role of religion in daily life and decision-making, the shared traditions of closing shops on religious holidays, and the importance of family structures. The essay also examines traditional clothing, the influence of Sufism on music and dance, and the significance of food culture, including the historical influences on Middle Eastern cuisine and the debate surrounding the origin of hummus. Furthermore, the essay discusses the impact of cultural resistance in response to violence and political stagnation, highlighting the role of art and non-violent movements. The essay concludes by acknowledging the strengths of Middle Eastern culture, such as resilience and diversity, while also pointing out the lack of sociocultural flexibility and respect for diversity as weaknesses. The paper draws on a variety of sources to support its claims and provides a comprehensive overview of the region's cultural landscape.

Running head: SOCIETY AND CULTURE
SOCIETY AND CULTURE
Name of Student
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Author note
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The sociocultural practices among the people of Gulf, Egypt, the Levant, Iran, and
Iraq are integrated with the century old culture of the middle-east, influenced by different
ethnicities and ages of history (Goldschmidt 2018). Firstly, religion plays a very huge role in
the culture and societal practices of regular people, in their day to day lives. As the
monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism are originated in these regions
of Middle East, centuries ago and this to the day, these religion hold a strong importance in
the daily lives and decision making of people living in the Gulf, Egypt, the Levant, Iran, and
Iraq (Haynes 2016). Secondly, as for the traditional shops and markets in all these countries,
they follow a shared sociocultural discipline of closing down on their respective religious
holidays (Väyrynen 2018). The Islamic shops are mostly closed on Fridays, the shops owned
by Judaic owners are closed on Saturdays and the shops owned by the Christian orthodox
owners close down on Sundays (Cleveland 2018). Thirdly, another very important
sociocultural practice that is shared by all the Middle East countries such as Gulf, Egypt, the
Levant, Iran, and Iraq is the tradition system of family. All the Arabic families, traditionally,
live under one roof, with the cousins, niece, second and third cousins, nephews – all as a
single unit of a joint family (Lotfata 2015). Strong kinship is recognized as an important
attribute of Arabic family bonding and they believe celebrating every festival to every daily
life in a prosperous joy of togetherness and family happiness (Desmet, Ortuño-Ortín and
Wacziarg 2017). Thirdly, all the countries in the middle -east such as Gulf, Egypt, the Levant,
Iran, and Iraq – the traditional clothing for both men and women is of great importance and
value to sociocultural foundations and the continuity of it. The garments or rather the clothing
are made up of cotton, wool or linen and rich embellishments with silk is very traditional.
Rich varieties of silk such as Baldachin and Damask are commonly used and incorporated,
threaded into clothing worn by both men and women of these countries (Aljammaz, Wang
and Peng 2019). A Jellaba is an outer gown worn by the men belonging from Arabic families,

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is an traditional attire with long and wide sleeves along with continuous long skirt till the
toes. A headdress named as ‘Kaffiyeh’ is worn by the Arabic males as an traditional cultural
dress wear (Choueiri 2016). For the women living in these countries such as Gulf, Egypt, the
Levant, Iran, and Iraq, ‘Hijab’ or ‘burkha’ which forms a veil over the woman’s face, is both
traditional and symbolically religious as the compliance with the same has been mentioned
in the holy book of Quran (Garduno 2015). Fourthly, the traditional music of Sufism forms
another very crucial shared sociocultural practice of all these countries. Dance and music, in
accordance with the age old principles of Sufism, is offered as a prayer to God and is inherent
to the shared sociocultural practices of all these Middle East countries. Fifthly, food culture
starting from Pita bread to skewered, grilled meats namely ‘seekh kebabs’ forms the most
integral part of the traditional, delicious middle east cuisine, in all of these countries.
Egypt was a part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries and some parts of its culture has
been influenced by the Turkish culture. Firstly, the lexical influence of the Turkish language
has become pronounced and found more clarity through the passage of ages and words such
as ‘bek’ and ‘pasha’ are integrated in local language used in the streets and homes of the
Egypt. Secondly, in the sociopolitical scenario in Egypt is also influenced by ministers who
actually belonged from a Turkish family. Activists, jurists and politicians such as Qasim
Amin, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Abdel Khalek Sarwat, Mohamad Sharif are the most renowned
examples. They all acted bravely in tough times of their country Egypt and earned a lot of
respect and prestige in addition to trust and faith amongst the general public of Egypt. All of
them, at some point or the other has influenced and solved the political air and sociocultural
stability of the country, in times of hardships and in times of need. On the contrary though, in
Turkey – the influence of Egypt is still existent such as presence of Egyptian markets in
Istanbul is a great illustration. Not only market culture, but the food culture is influenced by
Egyptians as well.

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The knowledge of food culture has increased owing to the knowledge about the usage
of a variety of spices and a variety of meats (cooked in a grilled and skewered manner) plus
the inclusion of variety of desserts and a wide variety of pulses, breads and vegetables in the
Middle Eastern cuisine. The knowledge about the food culture has added to my
understanding of Middle Eastern food culture and the history of colonial times influencing
the usage of more spices such as the popular ones like cinnamon, coriander, cassia, garlic
and saffron in a more an integrated way while cooking the food, especially the lamb or the
beef. The long history of Middle Eastern cuisine, from its colonial times, was based on a
practical approach of adding more essence to the process of cooking. For example, a new
piece of knowledge that was added was that the meat from ruminant animals such as goat and
beef were not that tasteful but it did gave a lot of protein to the consumer and that is why,
their meat was integrated and became an integral part of the middle eastern cuisine for many
centuries, even to the modern day. The meat was cooked in a special way – slowly, gently
over the crackles of the fire, thus helping the meat become more tender and allowing the
spices such as cinnamon, coriander, cassia, garlic and saffron enter and get immersed in the
meat in their own time, thus adding different textures to the natural flavor of meat. Secondly,
the knowledge about the culture surrounding hummus raised a lot a lot of interest. Hummus is
served with sesame, chickpeas, garlic, lemon as well as pita bread, oil spices, nuts and it is a
central feature of traditional food culture in the Middle Eastern countries such as Gulf, Egypt,
the Levant, Iran, and Iraq. There is also a very relevant and interesting conflict about the
actual origin of hummus and whether it originated actually in Greece or in the Middle East
countries such as Gulf, Egypt, the Levant, Iran, and Iraq itself. According to various sources
and historical reports, there are ancient mentions of ‘hummus’ in the Egyptian texts and
Arabic name of chickpeas is ‘hummus’ which adds to the Middle Eastern interest about the
actual origin of hummus. From the historical times itself, it has been mentioned that the

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cultivation of chick peas which is otherwise known as hummus was abundant in the country
of Egypt which adds to the logic of ‘hummus’ being originated in the country of Egypt. Now
to Greek interest, as the countries shared a trade route and due to many of its crossover food
delicacies being consumed by the countrymen of both nations – makes ‘hummus’ a
possibility for Greek origin as well.
The culture and resistance played a very vital role in the juxtaposition of violence
(internal and external) and the civil resistance to the political and social stagnation. The war
culture of Middle East between the countries and that forged by the foreign nations on these
Middle Eastern countries has taken many lives mercilessly, even of the endless numbers of
children and women. But there has been development of non-violent struggles and resistance
by the general public that has bought reformed the meanings of ethical governance and
democracy of the citizens of Gulf, Egypt, the Levant, Iran, and Iraq in a great and significant
way. The forms of non-violent resistance campaigns such as the ‘orange movement’ have
bought significant changes in the sociopolitical scenario against the wars and terrorism plus
against the problems such as foreign dictatorship. In the process, the art in form of writings,
music and paintings has influenced and aided the reason of the aforementioned ‘resistance’ in
more powerful, meaningful but in a non-violent way. In the age of neoliberalism – when the
power was thrown to the hands of rich people, it was arts, music, writings and graffiti that
revolved against the treacheries and atrocities of the government, thus giving rise to an era of
art revolution which intended and impacted to normalize the dysfunctions of a schizophrenic
Middle East society (Delaney et al. 2017). Through the putting down of the picture of an
atrocious leader and replacing it by picture of the people – the reversal of power and the
foundations of democracy was laid.
The strengths of the culture of middle east countries such as Gulf, the Levant, Egypt
Iran, and Iraq is the sociocultural framework of these middle east nations have been welded

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through the fire and war of many generations and the culture has learned to survive through
all these years which marks its resilience, spiritual knowledge, variety and diversity, heritage,
reformation and the power to go on. The weakness is that there is still a lack of sociocultural
flexibility to let in globalization of peace culture and there is also a lack of respect for
diversity which has resulted in civil and cross country conflicts and wars in the middle east
region.
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