The diasporic condition : ethnographic explorations of the Lebanese in the world

**Bridging the gap between migration studies and the anthropological tradition, Ghassan Hage illustrates that transnationality and its attendant cultural consequences are not necessarily at odds with classic theory.** In __The Diasporic Condition__, Ghassan Hage engages with the diasporic Lebanese community as a shared lifeworld, defining a common cultural milieu that transcends spatial and temporal distance—a collective mode of being here termed the “diasporic condition.” Encompassing a complicated transnational terrain, Hage’s long-term ethnography takes us from Mehj and Jalleh in Lebanon to Europe, Australia, South America, and North America, analyzing how Lebanese migrants and their families have established themselves in their new homes while remaining socially, economically, and politically related to Lebanon and to each other. At the heart of __The Diasporic Condition__ lies a critical anthropological question: How does the study of a particular sociocultural phenomenon expand our knowledge of modes of existing in the world? As Hage establishes what he terms the “lenticular condition,” he breaks down the boundaries between “us” and “them,” “here” and “there,” showing that this convergent mode of existence increasingly defines everyone’s everyday life. "In his new book, Ghassan Hage bridges the gap between research on migration and anthropological tradition, illustrating that transnationality and its attendant cultural consequences are not necessarily at odds with classic theory. Though his research subject is anything but classical on its face, Hage engages with the diasporic Lebanese community as a shared lifeworld, defining a common cultural milieu that transcends spatial and temporal distance-a collective mode of being here termed the 'diasporic condition.' Seeking to encompass an unusually complicated transnational terrain, Hage's longterm ethnographic engagement takes us from Mehj and Jalleh in Lebanon to Europe, Australia, South America, and North America, analyzing how Lebanese migrants and their families have succeeded (or not) in establishing themselves in their new homes, even as they remain socially, economically, politically, and affectively related to Lebanon and to each other. At the heart of this research lies a critical anthropological question: in what way does the study of a particular socio-cultural phenomenon expand our knowledge of modes of existing in the world? As Hage establishes what he terms the 'lenticular condition' to describe how the diasporic Lebanese community inhabits a multiplicity of intersecting realities, he breaks down the boundaries between 'us' and 'them,' 'here' and 'there,' showing that this lenticular mode of existence increasingly defines everyone's everyday life"-- Provided by publisher Lebanese Capitalism and the Emergence of a Transnational Mode of Existence -- On Being Propelled into the World: Existential Mobility and the Migratory Illusio -- Diasporic Anisogamy -- From Ambivalent to Fragmented Subjects -- On Diasporic Lenticularity -- Lenticular Realities and Anisogamic Intensifications -- The Lebanese Transnational Diasporic Family -- Diaspora and Sexuality: A Case Study -- Diasporic Jouissance and Perverse Anisogamy: Negotiated Being in the Streets of Beirut