ABSTRACT
A 42-item forced choice questionnaire, administered in 1957-58 to undergraduate students at the American University of Beirut, was readministered to a matched sample in 1970-71 to determine the hierarchy of group affiliations.
With the exception of a significantly higher ranking given to citizenship by males in 1970 compared to 1957, no other significant differences were found between 1957 and 1971 in the relative importance given to family, national (ethnic) origin, and citizenship by subjects in both samples, irrespective of sex, religion, and political orientation. Family still ranked first, followed by national (ethnic) affiliation, and third by citizenship. Also, the only significant within-sample difference found in 1957 was also found in 1971: namely, politically oriented subjects gave significantly higher rankings to political party affiliation than non-politically oriented subjects.
However, significant changes were found to occur between 1957 and 1971 with respect to political party and religion: namely, political party affiliation became significantly more important and religious affiliation became significantly less important. These changes were discussed within the context of changing social and political conditions in the Arab Middle East.
Finally, within-sample comparisons in the 1970-71 sample showed that politically oriented Palestinians were the only subgrouping who ranked national (ethnic) origin rather than family first, and they also ranked political party affiliation significantly higher than even the politically oriented other Arabs. These differences were discussed in the light of recent significant developments which had characterized the 20Palestinian community, particularly since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It is, however, clearly understood that our findings cannot be generalized to populations other than our subjects.
