From Orientalism to Global Sociology

Abstract

Although in sociology and anthropology the debate over `understanding alien belief systems' is well known, in the last decade the problem of orientalism has become particularly prominent, partly as a consequence of global political changes. This article outlines the main features of the debate and suggests various lines of analytical development which may help to resolve a number of remaining conceptual issues. Orientalism has been defined as a discourse which produces the orient as an object of power and knowledge. The discourse has a number of major themes: it provides an explanation of oriental stagnation, offering covertly a legitimation of western supremacy and colonial power; by categorizing oriental politics as despotic, because the orient excludes individualism, it offered a critique of mass democracy; and it contrasted the rationality of the occident with the sensual irrationalism of the orient. While the critique of orientalism in the 1970s was intellectually and morally important, there are some basic problems of epistemology in this tradition which are unresolved. The anti-foundationalist epistemology of the critique of orientalism often covertly relies upon a notion of the `real' orient, but it cannot offer an alternative discourse to conventional perspectives. The article argues that cultural globalism may challenge rather than support cognitive relativism because the idea of separate and different cultural traditions cannot be maintained. The conclusion examines possible developments in the sociology of Islam which may avoid the privileged stance of conventional perspectives on other cultures.