OG BRYLLUPSREJSEN GIK TIL ET KLOSTER: Ungdomskultur og forbrug blandt koptere i Kairo

Abstract

Lise P. Galal:... and the Honey Moon Trip

Went to a Monastery. Youth Culture and

Consumption among Copts in Cairo

A new cultural outcome of the Coptic

orthodox youth who are attempting to

integrate their cultural heritage in a modem

lifestyle is expressed in the popular trips to

the old monasteries of the Egyptian desert.

In trying to re-formulate a Coptic identity we

see a young couple who prefer the company

of their friends from the church instead of

their family at such an important occasion as

their wedding day. It seems that the church

has been successful in fulfilling the modem

desires of the young people. The trips to the

monasteries resemble this success and

satisfy not only a desire for holidays, but also

a desire for modem consumption, a style of

consumption which in modem times

becomes increasingly a sign of cultural

identity.