Boxes Fulla fun: The Fulla doll, identity and consumption in a globalizing Arab world

This thesis uses the case study of the Arab-Islamic Fulla doll to examine the relationships among globalization, consumption and cultural identities. Beginning with the question of how cultural products like the Fulla doll come to exist, I argue that the Fulla doll serves as an example of the process of creolization whereby non-Western peoples mobilize local customs and beliefs to transform globally-distributted consumer goods, thus re-contextualizing and assigning new meanings to these goods. Through an analysis of thirteen animated Fulla doll advertisements, I argue that the Barbie doll’s ethnic, religious and gendered identity has been re-contextualized to transform her into an Arab-Muslim woman, the Fulla doll. The final chapter of this thesis discusses the socio-political significance of dolls and their participation in processes of socialization and identity-formation in children. The thesis concludes with a brief discussion of the Fulla doll’s challenge to Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizaions theory.