Hsain Ilahiane is professor of anthropology and head of the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures at Mississippi State University.

Hsain Ilahiane’s book is an ethnographic tour de force. Not only does he show us how a complex multitude of forces and activities all converge upon the cell phones Moroccan people hold in their hands, but also how the phones themselves, as ‘total social artifacts,’ are subjects in their own right. Henceforth, anyone writing about the role of cell phones in social and cultural life will have to take this fascinating, and well-argued, book into account.

• Introduction The Mobile Phone is the Total Social Artifact Chapter 1 Street Vendors: The Mobile Phone is a Cleaner OccupationChapter 2 Urban Micro-Entrepreneurs: The Mobile Phone is the Sixth Pillar of IslamChapter 3 Female Domestic Workers: The Mobile Phone is like a SaintChapter 4 Smallholder Farmers: The Mobile Phone is neither a Snowmobile nor a TruckChapter 5 The Makings of Shame, Gender, and Place: The Mobile Phone is Satan Number 71Conclusion