Urbane Thought: Culture and Class in an Andalusian City by J.R. Corbin and M.P. Corbin (review)

318 Book Reviews nected to the Government power grid? Van­ dalism and plain theft can easily be seen as desecration in nationalist logic, although it must be said that after years of neglect in the post-1974 invasion the Department res­ ponsible for overseeing Turkish Cypriot property has belatedly attempted to do some­ thing about the Mosques. Yet attitudes are ambivalent in the South where there is, in the words of Government propogandists, ‘religious toleration and freedom’. I recall a conversation with a very pleasant elderly monk at the monastery of Aghios Neophytos. The area around the monastery had belonged to the Church which it then proceeded to sell at very hand­ some prices to Greek Cypriot developers who had then built and sold houses at even vaster profits to Arabs. Waving his arm around he said “we got rid of the Turks (i.e. Muslims), but now look what we have got in their stead: Arabs, Muslims too”. The book also gives prominence to the fact that many icons have been looted in Northern Cyprus. This is undoubtedly and sadly true, but there is an added significance that bears exploration. The point is that, unfortunately, there is not much to steal from Mosques, given Koranic injunctions against representation, whilst there is a great deal to steal from Christian churches including Orthodox ones. The icon evolved as an emin­ ently portable means of communication with the Divine (an early version of a mobile telephone which fishermen for example could carry in their boats), and they have been stolen and circulated for centuries - much like the theft of bones of saints in medieval Europe enhanced their symbolic potency. In the modern world, by contrast, if an icon is stolen then it becomes even more potent and like an art object, and joins that class of artefacts that includes Van Goghs, Picassos, and Renoirs. The task of the Greek Cypriot government thus becomes primarily the re­ covery of its artistic and capital heritage, rather than the recovery of its religious heritage. It is a great shame that the Association of Cypriot Archaeologists have produced a book such as this which has very little scien­ tific or academic merit. It does not advance our understanding of the Ottoman period in Cyprus, but merely repeats and fosters all the worst prejudices that Greek Cypriot nation­ alism has fostered in this beautiful but bitter island. As a phil-Hellene and phil-Cypriot I think that the Greek and Turkish Cypriots deserve better than this. Paul Sant Cassia University of Durham. Corbin, J. R. & Corbin, M. P. 1987. U rbane T h o u g h t: C ulture and C lass in an A ndalusian Tow n. Corbin and Corbin have added a second book to their series on the town of Ronda. As in their earlier work this husband and wife team have fuelled the debate in Andalusian anthropology concerning socio-economic classes in the region. In their previous work, C om prom ising R elations: K ith , K in and C lass in A ndalusia, the Corbins looked at the social structure in Ronda to conclude that class was not ‘an over-riding social principle’ as had been suggested by Gilmore (1980). Rather personal relations condition classes: personal networks are what give the rich advantages over the poor in Ronda, not vice versa. In U rbane T h o u g h t Corbin and Corbin continue this theme but look more closely into the culture which produces this system. Their attempt is to produce a cultural map of Andalusian society which provides a tem­ plate for action. Corbin and Corbin use what is basically a structuralist model in the style of Levi Strauss or Leach. They construct a map showing how they believe Andalusians order their world. Human beings residing in cities are central to this model. The subhuman, i.e. animals and things in the countryside are seen as inferior to mankind while the super­ human in heaven are seen as superior. The human domain is further subdivided into distinct levels. Women, children, the ill and the impaired, all associated with the house are seen to be closer to nature than...