ABSTRACT
This is the conclusion to Smadar Lavie’s book, The Poetics of Military Occupation. Mzeina Allegories of Bedouin Identity under Israeli and Egyptian Rule (1990). It is a study of charismatic and creative individuals. In this essay I want first to explain the paradox by which this theme can eventuate in these closing sentencesindividual creativity and charisma affording agency to ‘Mzeina culture’—before considering more broadly the place of individual creativity in the anthropological writing of cultural discourse.
