Orientalist authority persists through a complex, differentiated institutional field rather than a monolith.

Evidence

A recent critical analysis of the Middle East studies operation in the United States shows, not that the field is “monolithic,” but that it is complex, that it contains old-style Orientalists, deliberately marginal specialists, counterinsurgency specialists, policymakers, as well as “a small minority … of academic power brokers.” In any event, the core of Orientalist dogma persists. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 764

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to later Islamophobia readings on the ‘industry’ of Islamophobia studies — a differentiated web, not a single conspiracy, which complicates simple conspiracy models.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how does a non-monolithic, internally competing field nonetheless reproduce a stable core of Orthodoxy? What sustains coherence without coordination?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 764