Author(s) of article or chapter: Abu-Lughod, L

TITLE of article or chapter: Guest and daughter

Author(s) / Editor(s) of source
publication:
Abu-Lughod, L

TITLE of source publication: Veiled sentiments honour and poetry in a
Bedouin society
Year, Journal Volume & Issue
Number (if applicable):
1988

Place of Publication and Publisher California: University of California Press
Pages (from to): 1 - 24 ISBN / ISSN: 0520054830

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Course of study: SP10206 Intro. to Social Analysis of Development

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One takes the road that west,
and boulevards of rows
of identical sand-colored with balconies crowded with
J.Lt'V'-'''i.Lt",- across to .Ltv!''''-'-'L'''-..'-'-J.
and clotheslines covered with multi-colored garments that
in the sun. One must then cross a
which can accommodate one lane of traffic.
their turn horse-drawn carts and passenger cars are
lines of trucks and group taxis white
station wagons nicknamed coffins"
who too often see their abandoned carcasses
sides the cross a stream.
Once across the malodorous fumes and tall reeds herald
the shores of Lake Mariut. Fishermen the side of the
road hold their for a sale. One continues on,
the lake and comes to the of the desert,
This is not the stark sand desert found far
white beach the Mediterranean coast, nor even
steppe dotted with shrubs of spurge flax that lies twenty kilo-
meters south of the coast. a
1
Veiled Sentiments
a limestone dotted with factories and stor-
areas for the new trucks and automobiles unloaded on the
Each
In
age
docks of
As one travels these of the me-
thin out, scattered one-story houses of stone
or whitewashed cement. These crude structures, often
or embellished with
and surrounded dwarf trees, are sure
that one has entered the Western which stretches five
h,,,r.rl,.,'''rl kilometers to the border and is the hon1.e of the
Bedouin tribes known as Awlad 'Ali.! These houses
for the most part, taken the of the Bedouins' tradi-
tional tents of woven wool. Even summer tents, sewn from old
are not left near the espe-
in this eastern of the desert where sedentarization has
pnJCc;edled the furthest. A of a woman confirms
that Bedouins live in these homes: one notes the distinctive
of silver on her a vibrant dress at the
waist a red a head covered in black.
The first time took this all this was out to me.
stralfled to see to commit it to memory, and I vvondered if it
would ever seem familiar. Once I had settled down in a commu-
of Awlad my reaction was different. Each time I trav-
eled this way, my heart raced as we the marshes and facto-
ries and came across the open spaces with their houses.
knew that at the governnlent not far from the
town, when we turned off the road the desert
south to we would to pass the tents and houses of
some of "our" relatives--which was how came to conceive of
the kin of the with whom I lived. I looked to see if
could spot my favorite aunt, to able to the
slgnnng to those ahead. loved news from the world
I noted the season in the fields we
thanks to green shoots thrived in
2
Guest and
some patches and came up in others. The carpets of
wildflowers disappeared during the summer months, leaving noth-
ing but desiccated earth. An occasional camel grazed
small herds of sheep or goats foraged, nibbling on clumps ofgrasses
in rock crevices. Crouching alongside the road might be a turbaned
old man waiting for a taxi to come by. An old woman
bounce along on her More a woman, her face
swathed in the black headcloth that doubles as a might walk
a large bundle on her an infant on her and a
of children behind. I turned to see if I could
'-"--'.J>'.JL..... L ...... them, again to report to those ahead.
Returning from the crowded and streets of Cairo or Alex-
I often felt relieved to see the open spaces, to note the
silence. The sounds were shouts in the a hr
r
lU1nrr
a barking As we the area where I lived
for the whole of field there was a bit more vegeta-
tion: evergreens
the government to retard soil a guava orchard
tained with great Then came a barren area. A few
houses and tents, stood out on the
Some were made of stone and into the HuL.... .... ,
some were One modern was made of
white blocks. This was where I lived.
off the road onto a track etched a succession of cars
visitors and residents to the I strained to see who
be around. One never could the first to
spot the car were the on the lookout for
Their initial would vanish as soon as
passenger. Some would back to announce my
would run toward the the time I arrived at the
the women would have come to meet me, unless male guests
out front. If men were I would greet
into the house. out of of the
women arms around each
3
Veiled Sentiments
rr"nrt"i'''''nt the entrance. After away my and distrib-
sweets I had I would settle down to have
drink tea, and catch up on what had in my absence.
I lived in this household between October and
Its shifted numerous times over the course of this
but the core members were the head of the a
and somewhat unconventional tribal media-
whom referred to the
of the
who was also his first
__ .. woman who seemed older than her
years; and many of his the time I
children. Sometimes his second whom he had
divorced a year before my and all her children lived
she spent the rest of the time in the old house in which
all lived with his mother and his brother's until I
them.
3
Not all her children her on these moves. Her
son, the eldest of the lived in our
household most of the time. the second year I was
the third wife us, her three children. She and
the had months before my and he had sent her
back to her to divorce her. When he discovered
that she had been pregnant and had birth to he was
to take her back. Later in the year the younger
brother took a second whom he to live in our
household. he sometimes at his old house
his first wife and his six spent more time at
ours. In and cousms
and aunts, who attended the
market and went.
This household was one of about fifteen in what its residents
considered their There were adults in these
and about twice as many all un-
married adolescents. The slnallest household
and their the had I'n,p""I'u... 1'",P
4
Veiled Sentiments
ties
rooms in two virtue of an economic base
and were considered one household. The Bedouins describe
households the eat from one bowl."
ne:dcmlns VIew residential communities as social units defined
The term Awlad 'Ali use for a residential
) the same term to the
tent camps m which used to live. Most take their
name from the or cluster of agnates the core of
the camp, even most also include other families that have
attached themselves to the group-some are distant
some maternal others are unrelated clientso
referred to the in which I lived as the camp of the
North of the great-
included the five core
households headed the sons of two brotherso the let
understood in its extended sense as two
weak and poor collateral related
as well as a number of client families.
among the core families were reinforced
in the adult and in
in so many of the commu-
visited con-
at each other's households. was
who were free to either
aunts, or (if their cous- with their Tn,',rr'PYT
ins or uncles.
In past, arrangements within a camp re-
flected social relations. Tents were side side in a
all the same with the tent ropes of
households of kin At the center were the core households
of the those of the senior kinsmen and their
with more distant kin and clients the 'npy-,r,n_
ery. Now permanent structures make the fit between social and
distribution less Modern camps are a array of
houses and tents. houses of the core members of each
6
Guest and L){!UO'nl/?r
more
those in town,
the transformations in Bedouin
"'"'-',,0. ...-.0.> than poorer and more isolated groups
of this considered
was also
life of the
farther
cluster and those who come from outside
either set up tents near the households to which are most
attached or move into or new houses
It would be a mistake to assume from this that the
cluster of houses was as is often the case in the less popu-
lated desert areas farther west, This between a
town and in the more settled eastern district called
was surrounded other houses.
and an almost arrangement of the social barriers
between the households of separate communities tribal
were and the invisible boundaries wen
had relations with
VUHU.B.e-UU."""',,o.>, with there was little contact ex-
cept who on at the
mosque attached to a saint's tomb.
of contact individuals had with those outside the
varied The had traveled as far as
to visit a friend he had met while falcon the
Western Desert. Some of the men had been to the cities of Alexan-
dria and Cairo. Most had been to Marsa the m
the Western and even to in the before the border
was closed. all of the men at least attended
the market to the west and did business the non
Bedouin market town to the east. went to the
town or the between which their The women
were more restricted in their movements. All but the oldest women
traveled to visit their to attend and funer-
and to see the doctors at the clinics town and
local
Veiled Sentiments
---------_._----_._-----
and most of its inhabitants
interest 111 there. The core families'
which suffered a brief setback in the 1950S but
the's shrewd economic had
shielded from interference and freed them from
to cooperate in government settlement schemes. This eco-
allowed the core farnilies to support clients and
thus them within the group. It also en-
to set its own moral standards and maintain
a separate
All the trends Bedouin economy be described
m 2) in the diverse activities which
the members of this themselves. The core
families had viewed as their main
and had snlall camel herds for had
olive and almond trees and olive oil for
their own owned bits land from
which to make some year sowed
The first year of lTIy stay, there was little rain and no har-
vest; the second year there \vas a small crop. unlike his
had contacts in Cairo and Alexandria for whom he acted
as a middleman in real estate ventures on the coast, and in turn he
was to invest with his partners ill urban property. All of
the brothers had m in an earlier The
vanous client families attached to these core families worked as
"u,-,jJU,'-'L'.t" and did odd
and so for their patrons.
~ / ~ ~ J u . J , and a few goats.
rh",.-""",,,<" m had made were
tations to conditions. had taken
of government assistance in tree had built their own
and when the government claimed all Western Desert
had for the of their traditional land.
had last to desert seven years before my
but for a host of and emotional reasons had
8
Guest and L/<4V>V'H'-'
gomg; each year, the idea was raised anew.
had no although the Haj had a genera-
tor that sat broken most of the time I was there. One house had
into a that brought water but most of the
households sent their adolescent girls with carrymg Jerry-
cans to fetch water from the main taps. In the spring, after the
got some of their water from a well shared sev-
communities. had that a gov-
ernment school be built which many of their children
attended.
This sketch must serve as an introduction to a '-''J.UUAA .....
the reader will come to know in The
became apparent to me in the course of with this
group of and part as a function of the interactions I had
with them. the reader will need some sense of the
fleldwork before the theoretical are
An honest account of the circumstances of not
a note the dates the was in the
host country, as out in his introduction
both essential for the evaluation of the facts and 11t.. ... ".pt'l_.
report and sometimes embar-
msecure
about their
the fieldwork
fantasies. It
quacy the
ward them.
final Pf()Q1Kl:S.
when
9
Veiled Sentiments
from fever and eaten alive fleas or
a child fun at you, the of whether this is
that carries such labels as "research" or
scientistic "data collection" nags. And yet, the nature
of what learn is affected
the of their this should be
I do not believe that the encounter between
their hosts should be the sole of "..,r,,,"-,,
and can redeem the ,J'V.H!->'caCHH
to the encounter not
such factors as social location
of contact, and luck to mention theoretical orientation
and self-conscious to fieldwork and its
uct but also the conventional fictions of
and omniscience that mark the genre.
6
an intermediate I will present a few of
the elements in my fieldwork situation that were most salient in
the parameters of what 1 could do and discover. Out of
this how others in the per-
ceived me and what I felt comfortable with in my relations with
arose the issues treated in this book. Thus the exercise is
necessary to introduce the proper of which is the
between Awlad 'Ali sentiments and and
discourses that express and inform them: a
genre poetry of love and on the one
and the of honor conversation and
behavior on the other.
arrived Cairo at the
sconced
tions of
The hotel boasted a view of the
the great old hotels-the "-"'-" .... LH.auL... "',
and easy distance to the American
years since I had last there as a young
nothJcn2 much
10
Guest and UClU9'nrl:f
p ~ s o n n l l bore the inevitable marks of old
age. the city seemed to be in the throes of
change. The progressive of old had in some
cases led to their and in other parts of the city construction
of massive new hotels was llnrjprU7')U
I familiarized with the more crowded and
than ever, and awaited my father's arrival. Here the reader
pause. I suspect that if any, fathers of accom-
pany them to the field to make their initial contacts. But my
father had insisted that he had to do and
as well his coincide with mine. had
acc:eptea his offer to have the company but
also a bit embarrassed the after with the
Bedouins a time did I to some of what
had underlain my father's but firm insistence. As an
he knew his own culture and
to know that a young, unmarried woman
alone on uncertain business was She would
be suspect and would have a hard time of her
I of course knew of the of Western
fed rumor, to be sure, the fre-
quent of Western women to local standards of moral-
and social communication patterns.
7
But I had assumed I
would be able first
up the Arab half of my with West-
erners, and second I was confident of my
to cultural because of my
had I lived in for four years as a more
I had also spent many summers with relatives in
Jan. of that household I had had to conform to some
codes of conduct to Arab my
models for this behavioL I feIt had internal-
ized that would me find my way with the Bedouins
and not offend theIn.
What I had not considered was was reckoned
,-----------------------
11
Veiled Sentiments
expl,unea that his who had been raised
wished to her Arabic and to learn
and would need to find a with
After some the man
of a number of houses and tents. As we ap-
we could see to shake out straw mats
from the tents. We were several men. father went
with the men into one of the and I, with a of
the female researchers from the I\!lariut was invited into a
in terms of behavior interactions but also
to the social world. had failed to antici-
pate as conservative as the for whom be-
tribe and are and the education of
would assume that a woman alone must have so
alienated her her male that
cared about her. Worse yet, she had done ::>V'.u,-,uucu;:;
immoral that had ostracized her. valued her
an unmarried whose and reputa-
tion were critical to a would not be left UflDrotlect:ed
to travel alone at mercy of anyone who wished to take advan-
tage of her. me, my father to any
such swmlClcms
After contacts In we set off for Alexandria.
There we with social researchers a of the
Mariut the site of a land reclamation and resettlement
scheme in the Western Desert. The director of field research gen-
offered us transport to the Bedouin town
closest to their to introduce us to his
Bedouin contact. I still out to the sun-baked
town, at deserted. We drove
around in search of this him to his
small house. father and the research director had a con-
versation with him while I sat in the back of the
what was and dis-
12
Guest and u,Wf'nCier
tent. We sat surrounded a group of curious
women and children. We asked them questions and they asked
questions of us. I felt peripheral. I understood little of
what the Bedouin women were saying and had to on the
university students to translate from the fast-paced dia-
too had some difficulty understanding. We did not stay
but into the van over the of our hosts,
who wished us to stay for a meal. The director
that wanted to a sheep for us, as they would for
any honored guest. The head of the had not
been my father had instead with his brothers and
had left him a letter the situation and me under
his When I returned the next the welcomed
me and said that he would be to have me live with them.
This introduction to the affected my
1)OSltlOn and the nature of the work I do. it identified
my poor skills and my apparent
as a Muslim and an Arab. Muslim credentials were
did not pray and my mother was known to be an American.
most assumed that I shared with them a fundamental as a
and my father's was no doubt so
that believed in his which in turn
rubbed off on me. my stay I was confronted
with the critical of the shared Muslim in the
acceptance of me. As the old women and
the young children stated what most adults were too po-
lite to say. The felt toward or
out the children's violent to my
radio an old woman's horror at
out of a teacup a woman visitor
comments made about American friend who
came out to visit me liked very that she was
"for someone of her 1""",,,-","-'1>1
It was also dear that came from a and
so the could accept as a member of their household
Veiled Sentiments
without their social father's beautiful
Arabic and the fact that he was not an but a
he had been of much discussion. The
Bedouins believe that all Arabs are tledoUlfls
a decent dialect and a similar to their own. So
considered my father a fellow tribesman and a person with
noble roots the of which will be in the
next two I often heard them defend their acceptance of me
on these o-Y','\11Y'1rtC
Most of me my father had shown those
with whom I would be and on whose and
CfPlr1P'"C,t-u my life and work would that I was a
of a whose male kin were concerned about her and
wanted to protect even when of education forced her
into 'The and his relatives
took who had them
the sacred trust of the understood
that I was there to find out about their customs and traditions
and in our initial chat assured me that I must feel
"nUHTh'''rp that my as as I informed
wl1eX'eabo,uts, I soon discovered that my freedom was
in fact restricted. the subtle cues of tactful but stubborn
I came to understand that I was to feel free to go
within the camp but that to step the bounds of the com-
was not
movements had several motives. As the
"-'Aj-'HUU." ..... to me in one feared for
would be if
me, did not relish the idea of bec:onnmlg
vengeance matters. with them was ...
identified as a member of their Perceived all as one of
the women in the kin group, my actions reflected on them
and affected their had to make sure I did noth-
that could them as far as
I conformed to the same standards of women
Guest and
did, meaning that I was restricted in where I could go, whom I
could be seen, and with whom I could speak. But I also realized
later that another reason they discouraged me from visiting those
outside the community was that I would thus them in
social obligations they had not If I visited another tribal
group, I would be greeted as a member of the Haj's group.
usually offer a feast for first-time guests, and I would thus incur a
debt for them.
The other consequence of my introduction to the community
as my father's was that I was and took on the
role of an
entailment of this but so was my in the
my identification with the kin group, and the process
which I learned about the a sort of socialization to the
role. I never lost my status as a guest in
their my role as it. The
choice of meat set aside for me were later
offered to other guests instead. became part of the
when we had company, found more to house-
hold work than I and had my own chores. Men occasion-
shouted commands at me and felt free to get me up late at
with the women and to serve tea to visitors.
I should not the that this role was forced on me.
collaborator. In a where defines
to have a role as a fictive
order to I knew what was of an
... .. and found it hard to resist those expec-
I did to in the household was because
I was to the in my house-
In(:::mlGlng me in their lives and me as a
I was not that much of an extra
idle when the women
dose with the
It was to assist them that
penClds such as when
15
Veiled Sentiments
was ill and was before her co-wife
household with the of one adolescent rI'1111O"hr.>r
her difficult pregnancy, I spent much time with massag-
her and about her to take over what
little of her work I was competent to do, these as I
filled water collected straw for the oven, carried trays of
endless zucchinis for would worry that
was not my notebook with information and that time was
If I was I felt that the per-
sonal I had toward the individuals who cared for me
and treated me not as a researcher but as a member of a household
came first.
Two other aspects affected the nature social
relanOnSl1.rps with the and thus the type of research I was
able to carry out, I could not have been a without
female, As a WOlnan I often found confronted with
difficulties not faced male but 1also advan-
tages of access and in the women's
world, In my first few weeks I tried to move back and forth be-
tween the men's and women's worlds, I realized that I
would have to declare my in order to be m
either. With the whom I got to know very
well almost conversations and occasional car
rides to I found visits with the men because of the
limited range of we could cover. So I for the
women's more and more to leave their company
when the men called. This choice m.et with silent from
the women and and so I was into their
involved in their and made to their secrets. Because
relations in the women's world are more informal than m the
I was able to get conversation more
The other factor was my unmarried status, the
which have been noted two Arab women trained as anthro-
p ~ n s t s in the West who returned to do fieldwork in their soci-
eties of 1973; Abu-Zahra unmarried
16
Guest and
a new woman
cnangcCl over
put me in an
status caused
certain about
and I had no intention
wanted to protect my
at
not cast me in the role of but since I was far older
than the unmarried Bedouin girls, it also me In an
ous I wished to be part of the women's but I did
not have one of the most important characteristics of
women: children. The gap the two categories is
ized and when I decided to convert to clorh-
like theirs I was in a Married women wear black
veils and red belts whereas unmarried
kerchiefs on their heads and around their waists.
some women's and some
my kerchief in a way. In the
intermediate category. The real
was that it me from
was assumed to be
of this
But women seemed to talk
even in front of and so I did not feel that
closed.
In the first even as I the warm acceptance I
I chafed at the restrictions of my role and DOSlnon
It was difficult so GejperlGc:nr.
in the
comfortable around the
idea of what
should be
and surveys. I did not think it 'l .... ''''.,.r' .... ,.''l
my contacts to one kin group or corn:mllnJlty
hosts would have been J.uC'UJ.UU."'-
OJU-.C,","""'-'-'- my relations with them.
to protect and care for me.
respect their and my role as a
among the Eskimos
7
Veiled Sentiments
U,-"'UCl"'UU.t.U, '-"'-<'-"'l..J<.-U<.-.t.U"'. me the inner circle of
those who but for the most part
Where I had at first strained to understand what was
felt and done more than InterclCn,ng
came to know more and as my abilities
more. In the few months I went to Cairo
or three weeks to C' hAHY""'"
the end I felt '-LL'lYU<'::.'-'
home that I went a of three months with
Cairo to attend to some urgent business.
What bothered me most after the first few months was that my
relatlonsJ"l1p with the lived with did not seem sVlmrne1:n-
caL I do not mean this in the usual sense of a power or wealth
differential in the I was, after a
dent and but my company.
UV'U'l-,H., so that I could learn what
their same time I was to
reveal much about I was them with a persona:
I felt to lie to them about many aspects of my life in the
United States because could not
it and me in their own terms, which my
have suffered. So I doctored my and
when asked about me, but I felt uncomfortable
so. How ethical was it to present that I
shared their values and lived as did even when I was not with
them? knew of my former my U.l'Ll.l.IU;).
much of what I considered my
who not can present
themselves as different but can use the difference as a way of
I had to dissociate as much as pos-
sible from Americans. With my I dared not say,
"Where I cOl)1e do ... " What heard were
sufficient to make them doubt my father's wisdom in to
live and up his children among non-Muslims,
18
Guest and U(!UO'rltl,:r
subsided. As I,n",-nr',-
more fully in the and loosened my ties to my
other and as we came to share a common and set of
experiences on which we could build relationships, I became the
person that I was with them. That was sufficient for honest inter-
L '- ... HA....".-<,F,AA there remained an element of asymme-
about them and was observing a
than were, for the most I felt that we
.,.r.,,..po,-n,,,,, as individuals to situations in which we
This may to what
some other of the fieldwork expenen
ment of 1977, I
There were moments when I became aware of a transition in
my relations with even the process of went
unnoticed. The of and the ex-
tent to which this life had become natural struck me one
about fifteen months into fieldwork. I was awakened in the morn-
one of the who ran into my room with
the news that our had returned from the
We had feared him dead or because he had
been without a passport the seizure of l\1ecca's
Haram and had not been heard from" me to
and to attend the feast home.
I dressed in my best clothes.
As we set I realized how I was that I had the
proper items: a new dress my hosts had me at the last wed-
made of a colorful latest in Bedouin a
and a black shawl to wear on my head. knew that my
new sweater under my colored and
woven with metallic would be much as would
my new bead a from my friend the seamstress.
I was able to see as would be seen and took
IJ,A"... a""AJLI.... m that I was attired for a
tive occasion. I was also to cover my face with my shawl
Veiled Sentiments
as we of the men's tent en route to the women's
section. this time I would have felt uncomfortable had I not
been able to veil.
On the tent crowded with women, I knew
which cluster to of "our" relatives.
comed nle and to
me about the others present. This sense of "us versus so
central to their social had become central to me, too,
and I felt that I to an "us." when there
of the tea for the guests, I
the proper role a dose
I left the festivities with a few ofthe women from our rn,n-> r", ",... ,t-u
and spent the rest of the from household to
.... a.C..... up, to different sides of the story of the
latest canlp an argument between an aunt and niece. In the late
afternoon a few of the adolescent came to find me, me to
come with them while collected firewood from a
orchard that was It was a beautiful and I wel-
comed the chance to be so I hurried off with them.
showed me where their cousins had killed a snake and
more about the argunlent I had been neanng
about. We hauled branches and and loaded them onto
carts for a and as the sun we started for home. A
cart driven two young men from our camp
COmj)aIUOlns-tw'o women, three and a toddler, all from my
them for a ride. But the young
men were in a and tried to wave us
as an honored guest to be We gave
onto the cart,
insults with the young men.
That as we sat around
about the celebration we had anenaelCl,
tion we had and because we eaten
meat, I became aware of how comfortable I every-
one my own tidbits and mt:erpn::tatlOns,
20
Guest and
and easily the of the child who had fallen
my lap as I sat cross-legged on the ground. It was that
when I dated the page in my journal, that I realized it was only a
few until Christmas. My American life seemed very far
away.
Even my feelings toward them had Cl1:anj2;e(l,
think it was until a certain funeral that I became human
v"'"en"',-,,, social) to many in the camp. fears that I did not
care about them in the same way cared about me came out in
their accusations that I would them as soon as I
left and that I would never return to visit. The mother was
not but she was a in the camp, the ulti-
mate moral I knew that she liked me, she
wondered what I was and she was a bit
reserved. Her brother's funeral her attitude toward
me. When we got word that he had I insisted on with
the women our household to pay condolences. found the
whole scene very with the and "8 When
'-'\...1,-'-"' .... ,,'" before the old woman to embrace her and her my
I found Her me, and be-
cause she had been ill for a I feared for her health. With
each new arrival the ritualized laments would
and I could not hold back my tears" This funeral had awak-
ened my own over the death of my and a
neither of whom I had mourned ...... ,,-.,, .....p,,-I"
I later heard from others how touched the old woman had been
that I had come like her kinswomen and u . a u i . u ~ . L
to mourn with her. Others told me that had meant a
great deal to her to know that I cared and could feel
her the over the loss of her blood brother" From
that on, she treated me as she sang
me a few pOlgJ:1aJ1I: songs about before I left
field.
The sorts of constraints and
created for my enmc)grap.mc In
21
Veiled Sentiments
apparent from what I have described, if my hosts' as-
that I was part of their moral not a or-
with restrictions on me, it also allowed
me to way, a I was
forced to learn the standards for women's behavior from the in-
as it were-it was a process of socialization as much as
observation. The drawback was like Altorki I
found that me to know that I did not in
fact and my hesitation to my "'<''''''''"'1r,,,,,,
matters of did prevent me from
that otherwise have,
defined the same boundaries as those '--"'V'-LH..,U'-,'-'-'
of the allowed me to grasp more
how the social world worked and how its members understood it,
It my and my interests to be confmed to a
small group whose members could come to know As
I became more familiar with the I lived I felt less and
less strangers. I found the conver-
1J'-;,':>':l1.iUL,- with them and I tired of answer-
about what grow m amrika. I had become
interested in the relations in Bedouin
and was the which Awlad 'Ali under-
stood their social world and acted within it. This kind of knowl-
could come from and over
life are not
histories of
patterns of territorial
was, I
on which
draws. And out-married kins-
about whom I heard a great deal but
that my of the IS
than the fifteen households that formed
never met,
based on a
the core
time.
The lacunae that result from a dose
minor.. I sometimes that I 'Nas not
the relations between tribal groups or
controL But what I sacrificed in breadth
for a
follow
and
I am
Guest and
Whether this could be considered of
Awlad 'Ali is perhaps a meaningless question. Insofar as other Bed-
ouins were considered within the same social and moral universe
those I met on visits to other communities
seemed to differ little except in the quality and of tradi-
tional and modern goods they possessed-I would say that this
was representative. However, "cultures" de-
in any close individual families, and in
this sense my differed from all others. I do
not think this makes my observations less valid.
concentration on the women's world also con-
sidered a limitation. In many ways, my access to both
worlds was more balanced than a man's would have been. m
rare male researchers in societies have far
less access to women than I had to men. Not was my host an
pv,rrpn-'l,c.I" articulate and generous informant about himself and his
but his younger sons and and the client-
status men were all visitors in the women's world with
whom I could the structure of
information flow between the men's and women's worlds was not
symlne:rn.cal. Because of the men to one
another in the presence of women, but the reverse was not true.
9
In young and low-status men informed aunts,
and the wives about men's
whereas no one news to the adult men. A of
silence excluded men from the women's world" 10
research was most affected
directive took. The result of the confluence
pncQ].le<:u<)n, and my to pur-
or conduct structured interviews limited
the extent to which I could some matters
also enabled me to form my around matters that
ouins themselves found most and central,
of the me from
into discussions in which had no interest. Nor had I
Veiled Sentiments
or at odd moments
when were
or event instead of out blue. In this manner I was able
to elicit the Bedouins' conceptlO:ns of their social and I
was led to the of social life. Had I
structured my research in I would have been blind
to both.
any desire to do so. I of me as different
from those researchers encountered. I heard
stories of the "exams" these researchers had them
and the wild tales the Bedouins had fed them.
But because I had wished to live with them assumed it must be
on social terms. I was reluctant to violate these terms, and
took notes or when
but rather wrote notes from
the and tried to
A of '''''''r>'J,r shrouds
the eye, when it starts to dear .
dhbab
il-'en wen rna
poem was recited to me the wife of a
tribal leader. We were at a ceremony of
reconciliation dose tribal seg-
ments that had after from a be-
tween cousins. The atrnospnelce was tense. The women, In
overJO(lKlng the where several white ceremonial
pu:cn.ea for the men, watched the men's
At one several of the women
house and a chant. When I
the woman who had taken me as her reS,pCIilSlbll-
Guest and .!JiiVH'Hi(:f
in this group of that were reminded of
and over their deceased relative. As the hours and it
became dear that the had gone the women
relaxed a bit. Some of those not related to the
segments tried to entertain me reciting poems,
one above.
When I returned home after that the women of my
me on every detail of whom and what I'd seen,
and as I gave my account. When I read this
poem and described the woman who had recited it,
out who she was and the of the poem.
did so not me what the words meant but
to me how she had lost her son two and a half years earlier.
He had been shot the mouth in an altercation between
some Bedouin men and a group of soldiers on a
train a Bedouin area. It was not until much later that
was able to translate the poem and to grasp its as an
of the sadness she had felt at an eX1JrC:SSl0n
the of the murdered young
man on the occasion of his relatives' reconciliation and
recited in with the women.
life and social interactions
of the domestic I had
often sang or their conversations
with short poems. showed great interest in these poems
and often seemed moved when heard them. At first I
since I had no interest poetry. I had come to
and of In
between men my fieldnotes that
seemed short poems.
After a few to wonder what these
poems meant and were so valued the Bedouins. I
to pay to them.
The first poem I recorded was an old woman in another camp
I visited. She and some of the other women there knew women
Veiled L"JerUIYJvtenrs
poems
in conversation
songs I heard women,
She told me to write in my note-
and her poem to make sure had it
She then told Ine to recite it to a certain woman in my camp.
Before I I asked for the old woman's name, and she gave me
one. When returned I what to me were
then nonsense The women were when I gave the
name of the woman in the other ca:mp. on another
name, and I later realized she had me a false name. For a
in every household I went to in my comrnumt:y
asked me to recite the poem this woman had sent.
and I was about she had her
first realization of the sensitive nature of the poems came a
bit later. A wife was out in our house-
hold bread at our makeshift oven. After a minor
she broke into one of these poems. I insisted that she
it so could write it down. That as I talked with
about what I had seen and heard that him
and read him His
and he
demanded to know who had recited it. I that
I had but when I fi-
confessed that it was the wife of one of his he was
relieved. He that the poem had to do with
she sang it because she had lost one husband and
her present husband was old and about to die. I then understood
that he had feared that one of his wives had recited the poem.
When I my confession to the senior
she scolded me for my indiscretion and told me never to reveal
any women's poems to men.
reactions to these poems were my first dues to the
-nArl"'1'r1,'p of as a vehicle for and con-
fidential communication. I to
whenever individuals recited them sp,ontar}C()W)1
or sang them. It turned out that the
Guest and lLP'l-HH'fHr:r
and sometimes men, sing were the same genre as the short poems
they recited. The Bedouins' keen interest in the poems and their
approval of my recognition of their importance assured me that I
had chanced on something critical. Yet most women were not able
to explain poems to me. When I asked what a poem meant,
either simply repeated the words or described the type of situation
that might elicit that poem. I rarely had a chance to discuss the
poems with men, for reasons that will become clear in later
chapters. For a while I them under-
standing little because the was obscure, the
densed, and the referents with the
both a few individuals in the and a patient and
educated young I began to 'ntp,....... ,.,'!"
them.
I found that these poems, little
were poems, like haiku in form12 but more
like the American blues in content and emotional tone. usu-
described a sentiment and were others as per-
sonal statements about situations. The eUln()gra"!:)ll]C
literature on AwIad 'Ali had not me for the vital part
oral literature in their lives. Of the
who had worked with Awlad 'Ali and their
Peters made any mention of songs or poetry, and he
did not elaborate on their What material I
was later able to locate on Awlad 'Ali poetry offered no informa-
tion about the social contexts in which poetry was recited. 13
Yet cultural of poetry and song, which are
into life in other Arab is apparent
from some of the best studies. Unmatched in
the modern literature are the records of such
as I, 1935) and Musil
years ago, studied Palestinian and Rwala nC:CiCiUlns.
texts are with poems
and minor life event of the
Musil also collected rich material
27
Veiled Sentiments
from the Rwala Bedouins. For the most part,
the with which scholars of Arab culture comment on
the value Arabs on poetry, few have tried to situate this
poetry in its social context. Those who do deal with
matters are neither record poems as
nor do them
ripur.nnO' most of their attention
poetry. such as Z wetder
are to consider classical forms in the
what we know about oral
to consider one of the
social context
Because most of the poetry collected was re-
cited in social contexts, I could not but re(::OllnJlZe
form of discourse well into Bedouin social life rather
than an obscure art form set apart from life and of concern
15 The for all those who
from poetry to prayer, is how
relate to social life. Two recent studies of
Arab tribal poetry 1979; Caton 1984f6 define the rela-
OonS]:11p between poetry and in ways that go both
the old notion of folklore as a and source of cultural
wisdom and values and the Western aesthetic notion of the arts as
the of individual Michael in a brilliant
and of Rwala Bedouin poetry and based
on from the part of this century, defmes the
link thus:
Bedouin far more than Bedouin
cente'r of an effort to work out the various >-,,-,u..>.LUU.LH'v">
;JVc:>,:HU.Lt.l.U'_c:> of uncertain ;JV.UUL-a..l
some
28
Guest and JL/tHH"fHI:r
should be noted here, Meeker ties literature to
are the central concerns of Rwala
uncertain /,Jv,uu..... a. .. relations and the struggle among mounted men
with weapons. like Levi-Strauss, who at least
as in "The of Asdiwal" argues that is a means
dilemmas at the heart of a soci-
intellectual means
matic
Meeker's intuition that poetry
for a more prag-
between Yemeni tribal and Yemeni so-
of Kenneth Burke and roc:uSJmg
he argues
IS an act embedded in socio-historical an ag-
"'''<><'0i''7?> instrument like swords or rifles but brandished in a verbal
for "PCI>"<71'"
ety, Meeker sees poetry as a
with these central concerns.
Steven Caton,
is tied to
should
the era of colonial
I would rather raise a more Issue:
reJ,atJlOIISrnp between men and ,"-,V-'--'-'-.'-'-'0
the existence of universal associations of men with
and of women with the domestic
war of polltIcal
These of poetry differ iJJ.".J.X.'vU.l.
but share an that bear Crr11T'1"'U
because biases my work
calls into Both Meeker and Caton treat the
conflict and social order as the central concern of the Yemeni and
Rwala and both examine certain genres of poetry:
men's formal verse. there evidence tha""
these tribesmen are obsessed with conflict and iJVHU\--'U
suggest that the these authors attribute to this aspect of
social life derives from their own immersion in the
literature on the Middle a great deal of which is
devoted to debates about the segmentary model. That
the man most ""'''1''1",,,",<:1_
Veiled Sentiments
con-
genres: some,
matter, are recited or
Beauvoir 1953; Elshtain
\--UCUk',-,Uj",'-''', this
describe a of social life in modern Western
I would not accuse
or any others of
a it strikes me that a rel1Cl:WllS oonrespc1ncierlce
the views of Arab tribesmen and those of men has led
each to reinforce interests of the other and to other
aspects of and concern. These aspects, such as the per-
sonal and as to the abstract and 2T10UD-onl.-
the and informal as to the
and the to the U",,"'JLU"
no means the concern of women or Bed-
are more difficult to if one includes women's
in the of a women in Bedouin
concerned with matters concern-
the tribe and group affairs such as the tribal reconcilia-
tion above in which their and sons are
,-11,,p.rHu involved, share the martial ethos of Bedouin
But as Bedouin women are to the tribe and dedi-
cated to autonomy, so Bedouin men are more than
actors. too have and and suffer
in love and I argue that we should
broaden our vision of Middle Eastern tribal societies to encompass
these dimensions of in the of social life, It will
become clear how these aspects of life are.
In aU these societies there are numerous
and heroic in
ceremonial occasions or
sn:npler in structure and v'JH-....... .L.LU.UI.s=, mat- texts; 18
ters and are
tions. The former are
the latter tend to be
to informal social situa-
the exclusive domain of men, and
devalued male elders as the
of women and 19 as a
consequence, the love poems and songs of tribal of the
Guest and
Middle reference to their are
virtually unstudied. 20
Meeker and Caton follow this dealing exclusively with
the former type, because of their interest in the 21
For the choice was deliberate. Of the rich corpus of poems
available in Musil's he chose to analyze only the poems
and narratives of war found in one ignoring the many love
poems and ditties included in another This choice is indi-
rationalized Meeker's argument 26, that the
Rwala were little concerned with the domestic life of the camp, in
contrast to Middle Eastern In
life of the camp,
the
who spent a considerable
research in had less choice. He moved almost ""v-rl1"",,,,,,,I!H
in the world of men in this
poems recited men at formal
welcomed as a guest among other guests, and tribal
poets. His access to the domestic world of home and intimate
gal:nenrlgs of close friends and relatives was limited.
The fact that I moved within the intimate world of the Awlad
as a research interest neither poetry nor
tics but social the life of has
some on the genre of poetry I encountered and found
central and on the I draw between Bedouin
poetry and can be considered the poetry
of life: individuals recite such social
contexts, for the most part sentiments
about their situations and closest relatl:Oflsnllps.
The most about the poems recited Awlad 'Ali
men and women I knew was the radical difference between the
sentiments in them and those about the same
social interactions and conversations. The
Bedouins' to about or concern
matters and to express anger in difficult situations had struck me
Veiled Sentiments
consideration of
""'-"''-.l'l.JLhHU!-, between the
social
as defensive. But the constellation of sentiments in their
poems, for the most to do with vul-
and attachment to I could
and ones that
ilie
How is the fact that individuals express such different senti-
ments in and in discourse to be understood? Is one
discourse a more authentic of than
the other? Robert in his assessment of the
of the states that communication is the
medium which we discover how individuals eX1Der"lerlCe
their lives and how cultural beliefs that
He notes the difficulties such communication
arenas and media and the of
The messages of poetry in Arab Bedouin
are and are thus
critical to an of Awlad 'Ali expenence.
The central that emerges from a
AwIad 'Ali concerns the
Bedouin discourse and the discourse of
life.
23
To to this we must look hp""nri
both the immediate context of the recitation situation and the
broader context of the life events of the reciters and attempt to
understand the basic cultural notions the Awlad 'Ali hold about
social and the individual-in the H.'-'_'-'"Vl".
of social life.
24
To this I outline in 2, 3, and 4 the
basic elements of this the concepts the Bed-
ouins use to make sense of their world and the dominant ideas
that orient their actions and interactions.
Because the of m the of
"blood" in its two aspects of ancestry and structures the
Awlad 'Ali vision of their social defines social
rip'nr1l'u and collective cultural and individual atti-
tudes and sentiments toward I discuss it first. The organ-
ization of life takes form around this But per-
Guest and
more as concerns of social living for the
oeaClUlns, who hold autonomy dear and pride themselves on their
egalitarianism, at least in political life, are matters of hierarchy and
of power and status. Here the key terms of honor and modesty
come in. Most would agree that values associated with the notion
of however are at the heart of the social ideologies
of various societies. 25 Most also recognize
the link between honor and stratification. 26 But the terms
of the honor the arena of its ex-
the link between honor and sexual and under-
this code is so central have proven less tractable
tasks. These must be undertaken in the context of
In the of the of honor
and the to honor in Awlad 'Ali
show how this serves to rationalize social
the control some have over the lives of others in a system that
idealizes the of agnates and the autonomy of individuals. It
does so reference to which guarantees
that individuals will be motivated to act in ways that the
i-"J.u'",",-,a," and social system. In Awlad 'Ali greater moral
worth is the basis of one's or social with
moral worth measured the extent to which individual em,-
bodies the ideals of the code of
honor and around the values of autonomy. But if honor
derives from virtues associated with autonomy, then there are
many, most women, who because of their
and economic in their efforts to realize
these ideals. ethos and
of the virtues of autonomy under certain 'L-OJU"-,,AHOJUJ,
honor this system is different.
must show rn ..
deference to those in more
ideals. sexual
aspect of this deference to social
Veiled Sentiments
ma
indi-
rej:)re:;entatlOrlS that
senior male agnates, is elucidated in
pVhlr,rp Bedouin ideas about and the
system based on the bonds of The soundness of this
te:r'pret;ltlICm of sexual is demonstrated its
make sense of honor and the pattern of women's
How this moral system associated with the of honor
affects individuals in what say and do and even in the most
intimate realm ofwhat say feel is the of the second
part of the book. But once we are about life we are
back to poetry, because express sentiments and responses to
situations both conversation and
after a brief introduction in 5 to the genre
of Awlad 'Ali and to the contextual of this
poetry, I turn in 6 and 7 of Bedouin
responses to various life crises of loss and
love. Here the consistent of the sentiments individuals
express In statements, on the one and state-
ments, on the leads us to conclude that the sentiments
express have cultural In I use the term sentiment
rather than emotion or the or
conventional nature ofthese responses. the embeddedness
all emotional responses in cultural contexts that
value certain sentiments has been the ofmuch recent work
and Geertz 1973a;
Riesman 1977, I want to
this further. I intend
.uUJV.I..I.L.'- values and that
viduals contributes to ofthe
are tied to which in turn is U.ll1.UJlalv''-'1.
broadest sense. The sentiments
with the of honor and The sentiments h'-,.
in poetry suggest a self that is vulnerable and a self
'-'-''-.....UJl
h
'" of love and These are not at first
the sentiments and autonomous nor are
the sentiments of chaste individuals.
Guest and
What are individuals about themselves ex-
nrF'c,,,r,,n of these non-virtuous sentiments? What is it about
that allows it to be used to express sentiments contrary to those
to the ideals of honor without jeopardizing the rp'r111T'L_
tions of those who recite it? What are individuals communicating
about themselves and the they live in through poems that
express sentiments suggesting defiance of the moral Rec-
ognizing that both sets of responses are what is the
significance of two cultural discourses for the articulation of
individual sentiments? To the extent that what say, either in
discourse or in the conventional and discourse of
poetry, can serve as a window into their what does the
rll<:rrpr>')nru between the two modes of discourse tell us about the
power of the of honor and to
what does the cultural valuation of the
discourse tell us about the between the
honor and not individual but also the Orl2:al11zatlon
of Bedouin social and life as a whole? We turn to these
queS'[lo,ns in the final where what as a about
the of a genre becomes a reflection on the
fundamental issues of the of the discourses the
nature of and the between and hu-
man expe:nenoe.