Stratos Georgoulas/ Elixir Social Studies 83 (2015) 32918-32922 32918 Introduction A young state with a long history is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Although there is archaeological evidence of urbanized settlement in the country dating back to 9000 BC (from the first countries in the world), although the territory of modern Jordan hosted old civilizations that were important parts of the history of all great empires, none of all these historical and cultural elements has become part of modern cultural identity of the Jordanians, unlike neighbouring Syria (Georgoulas 2006), which has incorporated the relevant history of its cultural heritage. The historical starting point for most Jordanians is the union of the scattered Arab tribes of the region under Emir Faisal, the alliance with the British and the revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. But this point in time had no specific geographical limitation either, and, therefore, no space for a separate “nation” to emerge. Emir Feisal came from Mecca, conquered the lands of modern Saudi Arabia, Jordan and southern Syria; he called for an independent Arab state and ultimately what initially got was Iraq which was subjugated by the British, giving his brother Abdullah to reign another region, which was designed on the map (and was unrelated to specific historical and other data) by a young British secretary then, Winston Churchill. Finally, since 1921, when the aforementioned occurred, Abdullah had to wait until 1946 to be proclaimed the King of Jordan. The “nation” as part of identity of Jordanians is a concept that has nothing to do with the name of their country; it goes beyond geographical boundaries, and is linked directly to the concept of tribe. All tribes, nomadic or not, constitute a single nation, but this conversion into a single state in this case, was not successful. On the one hand, failed union efforts with Iraq and Egypt, unsuccessful wars with Israel and mainly, an always dependent foreign policy on the West adopted by the Hashemite dynasty that is ruling even nowadays has given, as consolidated result, the current geographical boundaries of the country. On the other hand, Jordan soon became a refugee- hosting country for both Palestinians (in two main waves in 1948 and 1967) and Iraqis (during the first and second Gulf War) (Winclerk 1997). Nevertheless, in the first case, that is, of Palestinian refugees, that did not occur without bloodshed within the country. The continued dependence on the British suzerainty (which had ceased only typically a few years before) and later on the American suzerainty - with indicative facts for Talal, Abdullah’s son, being deposed by the British, just a year after the start of his reign in 1952, and the forced enthronement of his son Hussein, a young student of an British military school, the removal of the government in 1957, because it had begun a dialogue with the USSR - caused the reaction, the uprising of the Palestinian rebels. The result of the uprising was the historical fact of the “Black September” with the death of about 3,000 people and the subjugation of the Palestinian refugees to the power of Hussein (Beverly and Hinchcliffe 2001). Demographics and economy With a population, which - in the last 50 years – has increased tenfold (from 586,000 to nearly 6 million nowadays) with nearly two million Palestinians registered as refugees (65% of the population is estimated of Palestinian origin), 500,000 Iraqi immigrants and with the remainder consisting mainly of Bedouin, Jordan is a country deeply divided. Amman, the capital of the country, has nearly two million people, while the real nomadic Bedouin population is only around 40,000. Nevertheless, the real difference is intense class contradictions. All Palestinian refugees live in camps that have been since 1967 with intense poverty, child labor, unemployment, miserable living conditions. In such a camp of 1.5 square kilometers more than 100,000 people reside (Scannel 2010: 56- 63). The same is true for Iraqis immigrants of the first wave of immigration in 1990. They are all poor; they have come to Jordan to work; they are paid the half of the minimum wage of a Jordan gets, and send foreign currency to their relatives back home in envelopes with the aid of taxi drivers, who hold a percentage of the total amount (Quna 2008). However, in 2003, the second wave of Iraqi immigration was only by wealthy large amounts of money and buying luxury houses. It is they who are now driving the economy (Al Khalidi 2010:1) – together with the non-nomadic Bedouins and this is reflected in the Wal 'aar?! Honor, Class and Tribe. Crime and Society in Modern Jordan Stratos Georgoulas Department of Sociology, University of the Aegean, University Hill, Mytilene, Greece. ABSTRACT The present study is a critical criminological introductory note that tries to correlates broader socio-economical processes and the peculiarities of political and social life in modern Jordan with the law and the practice of its function. Instead of reproducing orientalist stereotypical analyses, we use honor and crime as instrumental concepts that reveal the full patriarchal structure of the given society that converses with power in a capitalistic state. © 2015 Elixir All rights reserved. ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received: 16 April 2015; Received in revised form: 25 May 2015; Accepted: 2 June 2015; Keywords Jordan, Crime, Society, Honor crimes, Class, Tribes. Elixir Social Studies 83 (2015) 32918-32922 Social Studies Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal) Tele: E-mail addresses: s.georgoulas@soc.aegean.gr © 2015 Elixir All rights reserved