Pinelandia: An Anthropology and Field Poetics of War and Empire

Mock Middle Eastern villages are used as military training sites in America, hidden from public view. These villages contain mosques, restaurants, street signs, graffiti in Arabic, and Iraqi role-players. Anthropologist Nomi Stone explores US military predeployment training exercises and the lifeworlds of the Iraqi role-players, as they act out to mourn, bargain, and die like the wartime adversary or ally.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 308 pages
Publication date: 29 November 2022
Publisher: University of California Press

Across the expansive pine forests and arid deserts of America, there exist mock Middle Eastern villages, largely concealed from public view. These villages, adorned with mosques, restaurants, street signs, Arabic graffiti, and Iraqi role-players, serve as crucial military training grounds for cultural literacy and special operations, both deemed essential for achieving victory in the Global War on Terror. In her captivating and groundbreaking ethnography, anthropologist Nomi Stone delves into the intricacies of US military predeployment training exercises and the lived experiences of the Iraqi role-players who inhabit these mock villages. Through their immersive performances, these individuals mimic mournful expressions, engage in bargaining negotiations, and even simulate death, akin to their wartime adversaries or allies. Stone's fieldwork, conducted across the United States and Jordan, unveils the devastating consequences of a military project aimed at transforming human beings into wartime technologies, recruited to translate, mediate, and collaborate. By theorizing and enacting a field poetics, Pinelandia expands the boundaries of the ethnographic project into new interdisciplinary realms.
Pinelandia emerges as a profound political phenomenology, offering a profound exploration of American empire and Iraq in the twenty-first century. Through its meticulous examination of these mock villages and the Iraqi role-players who inhabit them, the book sheds light on the complex dynamics of power, culture, and warfare that shape the contemporary world. Stone's ethnographic approach provides a rich and nuanced understanding of the human costs and ethical implications of military intervention, challenging readers to consider the broader implications of American empire and its impact on global politics.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520344372