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Of the several book-length ethnographies nowavailable on Yemen, none dealt exclusively with the Tihama regionuntil Anne Meneley's recent anthropological study of urban visitingin Zabid. Was it the heat that deferred so many anthropologists to amore conducive highland climate? If you have visited Zabid in thesummer, you will realize this is not an idle question. Meneley (p.31) records a quip from Zabidi women that goes "If we go to hell[nar] after we die, we'll say, 'Oh is this all? This isNOTHING, we're from ZABID!'" But mad dogs and anthropologists oftendo go out in the midday sun, and Anne Meneley arrived in Zabid inJune, 1989, with her architect husband, Vaidila Banelis. We can allbe glad she did, since the present volume is a welcome contributionto understanding an important part of a very diverse Yemeni society. This is a refreshing read to soften the rigid contours of ourunderstanding of Yemen from the sheer published bulk on highlandtowns and tribal contexts.
I have always been attracted to quotes atthe openings of chapters. Having finished reading the book, I seewhy the quote chosen to introduce the books's Introduction is "In thedistinctive sphere of our social life, we can never remain at rest"(Marcel Mauss, The Gift). Certainly Zabidi women never remainat rest. As Meneley (p. 3) explains up front: "Everyday life amongZabidi women involves a complex series of social events, governed byan elaborate etiquette, through which familial social status andcommunity identity are constituted. This vibrant sociability is themotif for this book." As you visit this ethnography, you will bewelcomed by a readable text chock full of ethnographic examples. Itis the kind of ethnography that I like to read -- no attempt todazzle with obfuscation but a ready and steady pace to explain whatit means to be social by someone who went through it incontext.
The book is divided into eight chapters,sandwiched between an introduction and conclusion. The introductiongives useful background on the social context of Zabid at the timethe author lived there. A central thesis of the book is succinctlysummed up in the chapter entitled "Tournaments of Value," i.e.,"Zabidi women, through hosting and visiting, create rather thanmerely uphold the honour of their families" (p. 38). The chapter andbook title stem from Appadurai's acclaimed The Social Life of Thingsin describing dynamic competition in public arenas. The first twochapters describe the issue of visiting by women of the elitefamilies, drawing on Meneley's participant observation andinterviews. Chapter three zeroes in on social structure, the natureof the bayt economically, structurally, symbolically. Here theissue of marriage arrangement is also discussed. Then the authorexamines the issue of modesty, a dominant theme in the study. Thisprovides an interesting comparison to the ethnographic study of theAwlad Ali Bedouin by Lila Abu Lughod, one of Meneley's mentors atNYU. The Zabidi term, istihya', is described as "anumbrella-like concept to which other emotions are structured inreference" (p. 81). Included here is a brief discussion of femalecircumcision (informants were quite reluctant to discuss this), apractice not found in the highland areas. Note that this isliterally "circumcission" of a newborn infant girl, not theclitoridectomy or infibulation practiced in parts of Egypt andAfrica. Chapter five returns to visiting as such, with a focus onthe etiquette involved. A key argument here evolves around the"conspicuous consumption" or at least the overt displays houses useto gain admiration in Zabidi society. The next chapter expands onthese and other themes in relation to visiting at weddings andmournings, which Meneley describes as "moments when the host familyessentially demands recognition from its associates" (p. 140). Emotion is discussed in the next chapter followed by the role ofmoral worth and piety, with the prominent example of attendingmawlids. The conclusion uses two case studies of houses to drawtogether the main points of the book. Ultimately, Meneley arguesthat for the elite families of Zabid "one must balance the desire tobe a member of a distinguished family in this world with theobligation to be a humble, pious person before God" (p. 194). Hearkening back to the opening quote, the last line gives the crux: "One can never remain at rest or relax one's vigilance incomportment" (p. 194).
There is much to praise in this book. Istart first with the sound sense of professional ethics. Meneley'sZabidi informants requested that no real family names be used andnone are. "There are no photographs of those with whom I worked, asthis would be an infringement of their standards of modesty," addsMeneley (p. xiv). "Instead there are pictures of their malerelatives and children, of the men's counterparts of women's socialevents, and the houses they inhabit." Some anthropologists routinelygo ahead and publish only by the standards of their own society, butMeneley rightfully returns the respect shown her in thefield.
This is also solid ethnography. Whether ornot you agree with every interpretation, data are provided toenlighten the reader. While her own role as outside ethnographer iscarefully considered, it does not (nor should it, I think) takecenter stage. This is a book about what Zabidi women of elitefamilies do when they visit and why they and the anthropologist thinkthey do it. There are numerous comparisons to other studies in Yemenand on related issues in the Middle East, most notably the work ofDale Eickelman and Lila Abu Lughod. Gender is an overriding concernfrom the first page, yet this is not so much a book about Zabidiwomen as it is about the roles they play in the context observed bythe anthropologist. In short, we can use more of this level ofethnography for Yemen and indeed anywhere in the MiddleEast.
The book is quite deliberately not anethnography of Zabid, nor can it be used to describe a coastal orTihama societal structure as such, however much we may be tempted bythe simple lack of suitable comparative data for the region. Thisis, of course, healthy, since all ethnography is local before it canbe stretched to other purposes. It is also very much anethnographic-present presentation. Given the rich history of Zabid,one would hope the author would integrate historical data into futurepublications on her research. There is much of value to come fromsuch a union.
All books have weaknesses in the eyes ofreviewers, even our own when we choose to admit it. A weakness Ifind here is the lack of information from the Khadim or Akhdam pointof view. How the elite families view the so-called Akhdam is aprominent feature in the text, yet it is not clear what the Akhdamthink about all this. Surely the earlier work by Delores Walters,also at NYU, on Akhdam in 'Abs might have shed more light on theAkhdam issue Meneley had painted for her from an elite Zabidi brush. Indeed follow-up research on these kinds of class issues would bemost useful, especially given the ambiguous role "Akhdam" (to theextent "they" call themselves that) plays in Yemeni socialpolitics.
Another missing element in the analysis isthe sort of hard data about visiting patterns, marriage arrangementsand household economic status that a more sociological study mighthave included. I am reminded here of Martha Mundy's analysis in WadiDahr, where the mapping of family networks plays a critical role. Were these data impossible to collect? I doubt such a statisticalthrust would invalidate the arguments in the ethnography, butcertainly they would expand in a supporting role on the intuitionthat drives much of the analysis here. We are, as is often the casein the discipline, at the mercy of the anthropologist leading us bythe hand through the limited data provided.
Without attempting to analyze each sentence,I noticed a number of printing errors. These include: "follow" for"followed" on p. 71, the word "of" is missing on line 8 of p. 75, theword "the" appears twice in a row on line 22 of p. 178, "rurual" for"rural" on p. 197. The meager glossary has several careless errors. For example, "'arb'ayõn" cannot be correct usage,"bukhûr" is usually "bakhûr", "dâ'õf"should have a dot under the d, "farah" should have adot under the h.
The bottom line? Anyone concerned aboutYemeni social structure or with an interest in Zabid needs to ownthis book. It is a valuable contribution to Yemeni Studies and aclear and concise ethnography with shelf value and inspiration forothers to do similar research.
"...Within a few days we had found acharming, if tired, house to rent. The once-wealthy owners hadfallen on hard times, and the section of their house we were to rentwas long past its prime. Its comfort and charm revived a bit afterthe bats and pigeons had been evicted and our landlords arranged forthe windows to be fixed. We also installed a new front door --complete with doorbell -- and fixed the wooden partition between thetwo sections of the house. In this way, we ensured a certain degreeof privacy and established ourselves as a 'family' distinct from thatof our landlords. I am grateful for the aid of my landlady. Withouteven feigning the faintest interest in my research, she nonethelessfurthered my understanding of Zabidi society a great deal with herexplicit lectures on comportment. In time I welcomed her designationof herself as my 'mother in Yemen' who would watch over me while Iwas far off from my mother in Canada. Although I insisted on anindependence that was hardly daughterly, we became veryclose.
We were welcomed in Zabid with a warmth andgenerosity notable even in Yemen, a country known for hospitality,despite some ambivalence about non-Muslims from the 'deacadent'Western world. Our arrival in Zabid coincided with the beginning ofthe wedding season and before we had finished arranging our house,both my husband and I were swamped with invitations to weddings -- myhusband to the men's events and I to the women's. In Zabid, weddingsare the most important cultural events. Zabidis consider aninvitation to a wedding reception the perfect way of introducing aforeigner to the style of Zabidi hospitality of which they areimmensely proud. Huge tentlike structures are erected; wooden framesare covered in cotton fabric, and are decorated to convey an air ofopulence. The interior walls and ceilings of the tents are coveredwith brightly coloured carpets. Bunches of bananas and ornamentscovered in jasmine flowers are hung from the ceilings. At my firstwedding reception, I found couches arranged like bleachers to allowall of the guests -- at least a thousand -- a view of the raiseddais. Here the bride sat in all her finery, surrounded by dozens ofwildly excited little girls, who were vying with each other for achance to dance to the music which was blaring from speakers. Theguests were hardly less splendid that the bride, bedecked with goldjewelry and brilliantly coloured gowns. Jasmine flowers set offtheir hair, and their hands and feet were adorned with henna andkhidhab (a temporary black tatoo in a lacy design.) I found thesheer scale of events as astounding and impressive as my Zabidi hostshad hoped I would, and this gathering was only one in a series ofweek-long parties celebrating this particular wedding, and thiswedding was only one of the dozens of similar weddings held thatsummer.
The necessity of recognizing others in thecommunity by accepting invitations to their homes or wedding partieswas immediately obvious. I expected women's visiting to be importantas it is so often mentioned in ethnographic and travel literatureabout the Arabian Peninsula. However, I was not prepared for theemotional intensity that accompanied the organization of thesevisits. Women's social life in Zabid is a hectic one of perpetualmotion, and obligations to others are forever being weighed, juggled,fulfilled, or neglected. The process of recognition draws on termslike 'anger' [za'al], 'love' [hubb],and 'shame' ['ayb] and is subject to continualnegotiation.
Learning about one's expected socialobligations was not mysterious. Zabidi women are not at allreluctant to express what they think of one's behaviour and try todirect it in what they consider appropriate ways. The constantquestioning of another's activities is an accepted conventionemployed in the service of interpreting and often altering theactions of others. In my first few months in Zabid I witnessedcountless discussions of who had not shown up at so-and-so's wedding,of a person who had neglected one family for another, of aninvitation improperly delivered or neglected entirely, and I wasquestioned often about my whereabouts. Immediately after I relatedwhere I had been the evening before, the interrogating womanfrequently would respond with a snort and say, 'Why did you visit herinstead of me?' This intense questioning was not limited to me;indeed, such interrogations are so commonplace as to be practicallygreetings in themselves. I soon imitated the rest of the women, whoanswer such queries evasively in hopes of avoiding angry accusationsof neglect.
The whirl of the wedding season quietedsomewhat with the beginning of the school year in the fall, althoughdaily visits and formal invited parties continued. Keeping up withmy social calls was time-consuming, but it was essential to myresearch. Zabidi women proudly demand respect in the form of propergreetings and visits: without these proprieties, a relationship doesnot exist, even for the purpose of 'research.' Not only is visitingcompetitive, but, on another level, sociable engagement with othersis an essential element of moral personhood. My research would nothave advanced without the acceptance granted to me because I behavedlike a 'proper' person. Indeed, for the most part people wereuninterested in whether I did research or not. My relationships wereconstituted as friendships rather than as ones of researcher andinformant.
It is largely through the training Ireceived in how to fulfill properly obligations to friends,neighbours, and acquaintances that my understanding of Zabidi societyis derived. People who come to live in Zabid, I was told, must'become citified' [utamaddanu], a process which issaid to be accomplished when strangers begin to participate in sociallife in the appropriate Zabidi fashion. From a Zabidi perspective,the term connotes sophistication and refinement of manners. Theconfidence with which they uphold the rightness and superiority ofZabidi socilal life is immensely 'persuasive' both to zabidis and tooutsiders who move there."
[Anne Meneley (1996) Tournaments ofValue, University of Toronto Press, pp. xi-xii.]