Tournaments of Value: Sociability and Hierarchy in a Yemeni Town PDF
Preview Tournaments of Value: Sociability and Hierarchy in a Yemeni Town
TOURNAMENTS OF VALUE Sociability and Hierarchy in a Yemeni Town 20th Anniversary Edition A groundbreaking contribution to our understanding of the diverse experi- ence of Middle Eastern women, Tournaments of Value vividly portrays a fascinating world of female socializing, and in so doing expands our knowl- edge of women’s social centrality in the Islamic Middle East. Anne Meneley’s research challenges assumptions about the cross-cultural validity of a division between household and community, between domes- tic and public domains. She demonstrates the fuidity of social life, and the shifting nature of community organization, thus providing a welcome counterpoint to more rigid formulations of Middle Eastern social structure depicted in other ethnographies. Tournaments of Value incorporates vignettes to illustrate more analytical points and to allow the reader to enter fully into the rich world of Zabid. This expanded 20th anniversary edition introduces this seminal work to a new generation of readers. (Anthropological Horizons) anne meneley is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Trent University. ANTHROpOLOgIcAL HORIZONS Editor: Michael Lambek, University of Toronto This series, begun in 1991, focuses on theoretically informed ethnographic works addressing issues of mind and body, knowledge and power, equality and inequality, the individual and the collective. Interdisciplinary in its per- spective, the series makes a unique contribution in several other academic disciplines: women’s studies, history, philosophy, psychology, political sci- ence, and sociology. For a list of the books published in this series see p. 217 TOURNAMENTS OF VALUE Sociability and Hierarchy in a Yemeni Town 20th Anniversary Edition ANNE MENELEY UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO pRESS Toronto Buffalo London © University of Toronto press 2016 Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com printed in canada First published in 1996 by University of Toronto press. isbn 978-1-4875-0134-1 (cloth) isbn 978-1-4875-2132-5 (paper) printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based inks. Anthropological Horizons publication cataloguing information is available from Library and Archives canada. This book was published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research council of canada. University of Toronto press acknowledges the fnancial assistance to its publishing program of the canada council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts council, an agency of the government of Ontario. Funded by the Financé par le Government gouvernement of Canada du Canada To my parents, Robert and Rose Meneley This page intentionally left blank contents foreword to the 20th anniversary edition ix preface to the 20th anniversary edition xiii preface to the frst edition xxiii Introduction 3 1 going Out in Zabid 21 2 Tournaments of Value 37 3 The Bayt: Family and Household 60 4 Achieving Virtue through Modesty 81 5 Distinction and Display in the Visiting Scene 99 6 Moments of consequence: Weddings and Mourning ceremonies 118 7 personhood, Emotion, and Hierarchy 141 8 Moral Worth and piety in Everyday Life 160 conclusion: The Rise and Fall of Families 180 glossary 195 bibliography 199 index 213 Meneley_5197_i_(Reprint).indd 7 29/06/2016 4:19:29 PM This page intentionally left blank Foreword to the 20th Anniversary Edition Anne Meneley’s Tournaments of Value, here in its 20th anniversary edi- tion, ranks among the classic ethnographies of the Muslim Middle East. As Meneley notes in her new introduction, Zabid, Yemen, and indeed the whole Middle East have moved on from the period she describes in trou- bling and surprising ways. Like all ethnographies, Tournaments is historical, capturing social dynamics at a specifc point in time. It nonetheless offers a unique perspective on enduring regional themes: to this end it examines the tensions between the Islamic principle that humans are equal before god and the obvious inequalities of the social and material world, and how sex segregation, apparent male dominance, and voluntary female deference en- able the active collaboration of women and men in creating and maintaining family honour and repute. Anyone who picks up Tournaments will be struck by the freshness of its narrative and lucidity of its prose. Meneley is particularly successful at showing the value of long-term ethnographic research: of living in the midst of people, listening closely and carefully observing, allowing her- self to be led by her hosts to explore what they deem important in their lives. By paying attention to the seemingly trivial and momentous alike, she is able to explore how the subtleties of women’s visiting rituals and lavish displays of hospitality produce, rather than simply refect, a family’s place in Zabid’s social hierarchy. Women in her account are active politi- cal contributors, and their gender-segregated yet public events have impor- tant consequences for their families’ status and economic potential. With their privileged knowledge of the integrity and piety of other women and their families, women are key marriage negotiators and decision makers, pivotal positions in a society where politics and economics are not disem- bedded from kinship. As is the case elsewhere in the Middle East, person-
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