title: Looking Islam in the Teeth: The Social Life of a Somali Toothbrush.
abstract: The Arabic miswak (Somali, adayge) is a tooth-cleaning stick from the Salvadora persica plant. In this article, we trace the social life of a "thing," examining meanings inscribed in the stick brush, drawing on interviews with 82 Somali refugees in Massachusetts and an analysis of local and transnational science and marketing. The miswak toothbrush symbolizes relationships to nature, homeland culture, global Islam, globalizing dental medicine, and the divine as it intersects with the lives of producers, marketers, distributors, and users, creating hybrid cultural forms in new contexts.
authors: Department of Family Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine. llaird@bu.edu.
authors: Lance D
authors: LD
authors: Laird
authors: Department of Family Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine.
authors: Linda L
authors: LL
authors: Barnes
authors: Refugee and Immigrant Health Program Massachusetts Department of Public Health and School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Capetown.
authors: Jo
authors: J
authors: Hunter-Adams
authors: Refugee and Immigrant Health Program, Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
authors: Jennifer
authors: J
authors: Cochran
authors: Refugee and Immigrant Health Program Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School.
authors: Paul L
authors: PL
authors: Geltman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam; D008297:Male; D012036:Refugees; D032121:Salvadoraceae; D012998:Somalia / Q000208:ethnology; D014099:Toothbrushing / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods
keywords: Islam; Somali diaspora; commodification; ethnodentistry; miswak