Closeness in the age of mechanical reproduction: Debating kinship and biomedicine in Lebanon and the middle east

Anthropological studies of assisted reproduction and allied technologies offer new ways of understanding kinship. This paper follows those themes in the context of the Middle East, specifically Lebanon. The nearest equivalent to a word for "kinship" in Arabic is arguably qarābah, or "closeness," an important category within Islamic discourse: closeness is also a useful term for approaching a broader set of thematic concerns in the region, including an interest in "close marriage." Here I explore these ideas and how they are refracted through the issues posed by new medical technologies and "globalization.".