Looking at the Other

The first day at ACOR served as an introduction to Jordan. In the evening, I set out with some others to explore the surrounding area. We set out for Suq Sultan, a nearby area with some shops to get some water and supplies for the next day. Getting around in Amman is quite different compared to Groningen. Street names have only been added a few years ago, but are not used. People here navigate using landmarks, such as a mosque, hotel, or house of an important person. The traffic here can be eloquently described as an 'organised chaos'. The roads do not have lanes, the lanes are created and terminated by the flow of traffic. Throw in pedestrians crossing the road at almost any point, and it seems like a recipe for disaster, but somehow things things turnout just fine.

Figure 1: View of Amman during the sunset

On our adventure I noticed that we drew attention. We were almost the only non-locals on the street, so we got some looks, and especially our female companions drew the gaze of the bystanders. This made me realise what women experience much more than men. I have never really been stared at, so I felt a bit unsettled, even though their stares were not of bad intent, but rather of curiosity. According to John Urry, people do not observe the world in an absolute, objective manner.[1] There is not a single reality, rather the gaze with which people observe is socio-culturally framed. People relate things they see to things they know, their own social identity. This social identity is formed by factors such as values, political affiliation, nationality, and religion. In Foucaults terms of power, we construct our social identities in relation to the other. We looked different, we were the other.

[1] John Urry, The tourist gaze 3.0, 2012