The Jordan Cultural Field Guide is designed to provide deploying military personnel an overview of Jordan’s cultural terrain. In this field guide, Jordan’s cultural history has been synopsized to capture the more significant aspects of the Jordan cultural environment, with emphasis on factors having the greatest potential to impact operations.
The field guide presents background information to show the Jordan mind-set through its history, language, and religion. It also contains practical sections on lifestyle, customs and habits. For those seeking more extensive information, MCIA produces a series of cultural intelligence studies on Jordan that explore the dynamics of Jordan culture at a deeper level.
Jordan’s lack of historical or naturally defined borders hamper efforts to establish a national identity. Most of its population has lived in Jordan for less than a century. Still, national identity has become important for many Jordanians. Jordan’s national identity has been actively cultivated by the state, which focuses on tribal heritage, the role of Jordan’s leaders in the Arab Revolt, and the Hashemites’ descent from the Prophet and guardianship of religious sites. National identity has also been reinforced as citizens develop vested interests in the bureaucratic and military institutions of the state. As younger generations are born and raised in Jordan, they increasingly consider themselves “Jordanian.”
Marine Corps Intelligence Activity Jordan Cultural Field Guide
