In this book, 1997 IDRF Fellow Flagg Miller uses the lives and works of individual poets, singers, and audiences to show how tribalism becomes a resource for critical reform and for morally evaluating political liberalism. From the 1940s onward, a new class of political activists has used audio-recording technologies, especially the audiocassette, to redefine traditional Muslim authorship and address the divergent views about the resurgence of tribalism by showing Yemenis how to adapt traditional mores into more progressive aims. Though skilled bards still continue to perform orally marked tribal verse, oral performance is not static. Much of the current power of orality comes from its relationship to writing, print, and audiovisual media, linking tribal ideals with metropolitan and national discourses. Buy from Amazon.