Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Neither liberal nor illiberal I should start with a confession: I have never known for sure what a public is.I have studied them, addressed them, and I know when I am in one.But when pressed to define 'a public' , I seldom say the same thing twice.I do know that publics described as 'liberal' are often unwelcoming places, or politically imposed frameworks, in the communities I work with most closely as an anthropologist.In Yemen and Jordan, tribal groups push for governmental reforms that are stereotypically liberal -fair elections, freedom of speech -yet because these groups are factional, keep their own customary law, and make priority claims on national identity and state resources based on genealogical descent, they are routinely depicted as backward constituencies that cannot persist in a truly democratic society.In Dearborn, MI, as I write this afterword, Muslim activists are lobbying to have LGBTQ books removed from school libraries, a position they see as consistent with their right to be different and an expression of their full participation in the American political system.In both settings, what can be properly included, or endorsed, in the public sphere is up for debate, as are the boundaries of this contested place/space/jurisdiction.One thing is for sure: labels cannot be trusted.Advocates of inclusion are not above marginalizing those who disagree with them; and the most exclusive factions might be the most willing to leave their opponents alone.Liberal public spheres can be as dogmatic in their moral assumptions as the evangelical Christian churches I attended while growing up in the American South.In becoming an anthropologist, I set aside my religious beliefs, but I always detected a false friend in secular liberalism, which seemed related, in very deep and disturbing ways, to the epistemologies it wanted to replace.
Author: Andrew Shryock
Institution: University of Michigan
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,120
OpenAlex ID: W4414485362