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CITIZENSHIP IN THE U.S.A. AND YEMEN.
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Differences in concepts of citizenship.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Differences in concepts of citizenship. Conceptions of and attitudes toward law. U.S. as a nation of immigrants. Common citizens. Yemen as a society of ancient peoples with local traditions. U.S. as older nation-state. British Colonial rule of Yemen, and pre-Colonial Yemen. Yemen political independence in 1990. Yemen nationalism.
Paper Introduction:
CITIZENSHIP IN TWO CULTURES
A Comparison of the United States and Yemen
Introduction and Background
Yemen possesses one of the world's ancient civilizations. The Queen of Saba, or "Sheba," who visited King Solomon three thousand years ago, came from what today is Yemen. The Yemenis became early converts to Islam, in the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad, and Yemeni merchants helped to spread the Muslim faith as far as modern Indonesia and beyond ("Culture," no date). During most of that time, Yemen remained independent of foreign rule -- indeed, right up until the last century, no foreign
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Yemen also has immigrant populations. Citizenship isthus at the root of American identity, but a relatively recent component ofYemeni identity. However, a large fraction of the Yemenipopulation still lives in villages where their ancestors have lived forcenturies, and where traditional ties thus remain strong.Conceptions of Law The effects of the contrast between the United States and Yemen, asoutlined above, extend beyond the sense of national identity or"citizenship" in its narrow sense. ArabNet.http://www.arab.net/yemen/govt/yemen_govt.html "Separate States and Unification" (No date). 34). New York: Columbia University. The Yemenis are thus, for the most part, a far more ancient peoplethan Americans. In contrast, though most Yemenis are of relatively commonorigin, the law in Yemen is of widely varied origin. Law is enforced by the state, but it depends formuch of its effectiveness on some general level of public assent. However, most Yemenis today are undoubtedlydescended from people whose ancestors already lived thousands of years agoin what now is Yemen. Norwas Yemen a nation-state, or comparable unified political entity, in thepre-colonial era. While Yemen isdistinguished as the only nation in the Arabian Peninsula to have had freemultiparty elections, in 1993 ("Government," no date), it is in some waysstill in the process of becoming a nation. 38-39). This sense of citizenship, being quite recent, muststill compete with other traditional loyalties, such as to tribes. 33). Even today, Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia has not been fullydefined in some remote regions (Central Intelligence Agency, no date),while local tribal leaders have more influence in many rural areas thandoes the Yemeni central government (Slackman, 1992). "Yemen." CIA World Factbook.http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ym.html "Culture" (No date). In Yemen, on the other hand, identity has been shaped by both commonthreads of Muslim and Arab heritage, and by local traditions of tribe andvillage, for centuries before there was any Yemeni state. Yemen was not a single colony, but a group of colonies organizedin a haphazard way (Gause, 199 , p. The Queenof Saba, or "Sheba," who visited King Solomon three thousand years ago,came from what today is Yemen. Today, for example, Detroit has become noted for its concentration ofArab-Americans. CITIZENSHIP IN TWO CULTURES A Comparison of the United States and YemenIntroduction and Background Yemen possesses one of the world's ancient civilizations. Some of these processes have operated in modern Yemen as well,including among "internal immigrants," such as people whose families hadmoved from an ancestral village to a city such as Sana or Aden. Inaddition it must compete with broader identities, such as Arab identity,that are still very strongly felt, as shown by the very large size ofrecent public demonstrations in support of the Palestinian struggle("Yemen: One Million Citizens," 2 2). Moreover, even British rule was fragmented for much of itshistory. ArabNet.http://www.arab.net/yemen/culture/yn_people.html Gause, F. On the one hand, America prides itself, with some justice, on settingfew limits to personal aspiration. Inparticular, Americans treat the United States Constitution as somethingclose to a sacred text, an attitude reinforced by the ability of theSupreme Court to overturn both federal and state laws as unconstitutional.For Yemenis, in contrast, Sharia law (in different Sunni and Shiainterpretations) and traditional tribal law have a much stronger hold onmost people than laws passed by the government, but lacking religious ortraditional sanction. Thus, traditional local ties -- such as those of tribe or village --have almost invariably been broken for immigrants. "Government" (No date). However, a new immigrant settling even in an Arab-Americanneighborhood in Detroit may have Iraqi, Lebanese, Palestinian, and Tunisianneighbors, or neighbors whose grandparents came from these countries butwho know only a few words of Arabic themselves, as well as neighbors of non-Arab background. The suddenappearance of American flags in front of nearly every house, after theattack on September 11, is an indication of how strongly American nationalidentity has taken hold among people whose ancestors came from every partof the world. Part of it istraditional customary or tribal law, handed down over centuries orthousands of years. Many possibledisputes can be avoided if people involved in any business or socialtransaction, from buying a car to marrying and starting a household, knowwhat is expected of them. Immigrants often tended tocluster in neighborhoods where other people of similar background alreadylived, and big American cities still have their distinctive "Chinatowns" or"Little Italies," as well as African-American ghettoes and Hispanicbarrios. Part of it is based on the Sharia, "Islamic Law"rooted in Muslim teachings as developed over the years by the Islamiccommunity as a whole. If taken literally, this would mean that everyvillage, or even large household, was an independent state. As a nation-state, however, Yemen is very new. Most otherYemenis might have identified themselves as members of a particular villageor tribe, as Arabs, and as Muslims, but not yet as Yemenis. It is also a means of settling disputes that arise indaily life -- or of ensuring that disputes do not arise. Liberal ideas and ideals are strongly reflected in thelegal system as well as part of the culture as a whole. The different conceptions of citizenship between the two areshaped by this contrast. What a new immigrant to America is least likely to findis a whole community drawn from the same locality. References Central Intelligence Agency (No date). While theAmerican people are of extremely diverse origin, the legal system of theUnited States comes almost entirely from one source, British Common Law, asestablished in the colonies at the time they won their liberation struggleagainst Britain. British imperial rule brought a greaterinflux of immigrants, especially from India, but also from Africa andEurope (Gause, 199 , p. The inquiry willconsider historical and cultural factors shaping conceptions of nationhoodand citizenship in the two societies, not only in a narrow sense, but inbroader aspects such as conceptions of and attitudes toward law.Immigrants versus Ancient Roots Perhaps the most fundamental difference in concepts of citizenshipbetween the United States and Yemen derives from the fact that the UnitedStates is, famously, "a nation of immigrants." Only a small fraction ofthe modern population of the United States, perhaps about one percent, isdescended primarily from the Native American Indian peoples who had livedin North America for thousands of years. Ingrams wasperhaps exaggerating, or missing the subtle aspects of a "tribal" society,and other parts of Yemen had more local unification. The United States declaredits independence in 1776 and adopted its current system of government in1792, over two centuries ago and far beyond living memory. Indeed,most Americans are descended from people who immigrated after the UnitedStates became an independent nation. Older Yemenis can still remember the era of Britishcolonial rule. While Britishcolonial rule ended in the 196 s, Yemen was then divided into two separatestates which were not unified until 1991 ("Separate States," no date). Thus, many different legal traditions have contributed to Yemeni law,and their varied principles still compete for standing both in courtroomsand in public opinion. 34). ArabNet.http://www.arab.net/yemen/history/yn_unification.html Slackman, Michael (2 2). In spite of such examples as Prohibition, however, a striking featureof American society is the near-sanctity accorded to the official law. In the United States, these two functions of law correspond more orless to the distinction between criminal law and civil law. Fifty years ago a concept of Yemeni citizenship did exist,but it was still confined to the relatively small population of people,especially in Aden, who had been exposed to nationalist ideas. On the other hand, the United States as a nation-state inthe political sense is far older than Yemen. It would naturally be a simplification to say that immigrants to theUnited States automatically started thinking of themselves purely asAmerican citizens the moment they landed. While largely free of outside domination through most ofits history, Yemen was for the most part a "tribal" society, where localleaders and kinship groups had greater influence than any centralgovernment. The AmericanConstitution specifies a list of individual rights, but has no concept (forexample) of family rights or obligations, nor very much concept ofcommunity rights. They also have an impact, for example,on how people think about law. Arabic News.com (April 4).http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/ 2 4 4/2 2 4 42 .html----------------------- 1 Formigrants to the large cities, the traditional ties to village or tribe alsotended to break down, since they too have found themselves living among newneighbors drawn from all parts of Yemen (and elsewhere). The only ties thatremained were the much more general ties of nationality or religion, andeven these are loosened in the fluid, mobile society of the United States.Instead, the United States becomes the "tribe" for immigrants. In contrast,the unified Republic of Yemen came into existence only in 199 , while itstwo former divisions won their independence only in 1967 ("SeparateStates," no date). Still another part is (like American law) based onBritish common law, as established under British colonial rule. A1. Americans sometimes appear to regard the lawmainly as a guide to what they can get away with, rather than as a guide totheir responsibilities to others.Conclusions The United States and Yemen are in a sense nearly mirror images.Yemen is an ancient society, with some diverse origins, but for the mostpart rooted in centuries of Arab and Muslim heritage. A concept of Yemeni citizenship thus did not really exist at all acentury ago. Law anywhere has two basic elements. An immigrant can start a business, ormarry whomever he or she wishes, and an immigrant who becomes an Americancitizen can run for public office. During most of that time, Yemen remained independent of foreignrule -- indeed, right up until the last century, no foreign conquerer ruledover more than part of modern Yemen. It should thusnot be a surprise that Yemeni nationalism first became a strong force inAden (Gause, 199 , pp. Only in thelast generation or two have most people learned to start thinking ofthemselves as Yemenis. Common citizenship is very nearly the first thingthat Americans came to have in common, and it is central to their identity. A child of immigrants could aspire tobecome President. Because Yemen is located alongone of the world's great trade routes since ancient times, merchants,seamen, caravan drovers, and others came to Yemen over the centuries, andsome remained to become Yemenis. "Yemen: One million citizens call for trying the Arab leaders"(2 2). In the Hadramawtregion of South Yemen alone, a British official named Harold Ingramsreported in 1933 that he "found about 2, separate governments there"(Gause, 199 , p. In contrast, the United States is a young society, formedmostly by people who have immigrated from all parts of the world in thelast three centuries, yet as a national state it is almost as old as itscivilization. This is a frequent source of conflict and turbulence within Yemen.People frequently "take the law into their own hands" -- meaning, usually,not that they make purely arbitrary personal decisions, but that theydemand rights or restitution for grievances based on traditional tribal lawor custom, rather than accepting the law as handed down by official courts,as Americans generally do (Slackman, 1992).Liberalism and Tradition A final important distinction between American and Yemeni concepts ofcitizenship is rooted in individualism versus family or community.American culture is essentially a liberal culture, shaped by a set ofvalues, rooted in the rights and dignity of individuals, that came intobeing at about the same time the United States itself did, in the 18th and19th centuries. Still, it is true ingeneral that Yemen had no political unity until well within the lifetime ofmany Yemenis. Saudi-Yemeni Relations: DomesticStructure and Foreign Influence. It isin part a standard of behavior, or public morality, providing a sanctionagainst misconduct. The rest are all descended fromimmigrants, or from African slaves brought forcibly to America. The Yemenis became early converts to Islam,in the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad, and Yemeni merchants helped tospread the Muslim faith as far as modern Indonesia and beyond ("Culture,"no date). Even in these ethnic communities, however, immigrants foundthemselves among people drawn from a much more varied background than inthe villages they had left behind. AsAmericans found out during the Prohibition era, it is very difficult toenforce a law if people do not feel any inner obligation to obey it. To Yemenis -- and probably to many other people aroundthe world -- this is at once one of the most attractive and leastattractive features of American society. Gregory III (199 ). "Rules in Mideast's Wild West." LosAngeles Times (April 5), p. Large-scale immigration continuestoday, drawing people from all parts of the world. On the other hand, in spite of rhetoric about "familyvalues," American society seems to accept or even encourage a great deal ofpersonal irresponsibility. However, Yemen as astate is very new, having come fully into being only little more than adecade before. Pre-colonial Yemen had been even more fragmented. The remainder of this discussion will consider differences in theconcepts of citizenship in Yemen and the United States.
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