ABSTRACT
In 2009, several Arabic Moroccan media venues began a campaign pushing back against a proposal to change the state administrative language from classical Arabic to Moroccan Arabic dialect, French, or Tamazight. This chapter provides a selective outline of linguistic anthropology theories and themes, and turns to topics explored by scholars working in Arabic-speaking contexts. Many scholars working in Arabic-speaking contexts employ linguistic anthropology theories in their work, but tend to frame their research in relation to other disciplinary trends. Linguistic anthropology has provided a nuanced and rich range of ideas to analyze the social and political life of Arabic interactions. The chapter provides an idea of some trends and topics of interest to anthropologists and language-related scholars working to understand Arabic language use and ideologies as social and political action and reflexive models of social life. Literacy has long been heralded as a key linguistic technology causally linked to economic advancement, gender parity, and democratic participation.
