A 1985 ethnography uncritically accepted orientalist golden-age narratives

Evidence

Wives of the God-King is a thoroughly vetted and rather well-known book. It is hard to imagine that it was published in 1985! The author takes at face value the invocation of the golden age by orientalist and bourgeois alike. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 1997

Categorization

• QUESTION: Marglin’s own avowal of inability to verify anti-Muslim decay claims (‘historical research…was beyond my abilities’) is a striking methodological capitulation worth chasing.
• XREF: connects to: Orientalists fabricated ethnographic details to fit a timeless-and-declining Orient narrative — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 195; Orientalism lagged behind the methods of the human and social sciences — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 294; Romanticism projected an exotic Orientalist fantasy rather than accurate knowledge — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 89

Broader Connections

• Orientalists fabricated ethnographic details to fit a timeless-and-declining Orient narrative #exemplifies (0.92) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 195
• Romanticism projected an exotic Orientalist fantasy rather than accurate knowledge #exemplifies (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 89
• Orientalism lagged behind the methods of the human and social sciences #exemplifies (0.78) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 294