About book Guests Of The Sheik: An Ethnography Of An Iraqi Village (1995)
In the early 1950s, when Elizabeth Fernea was a young bride, she joined her researcher husband as he journeyed to a remote tribal village in Iraq, to live and study for nearly two years. As a Western woman, Elizabeth chose to integrate herself into tribal society by donning the traditional abayah (the long black cloak/veil), avoiding being seen by unfamiliar men.Her time in the village is so full of learning, misunderstandings and bizarre experiences. She attends festivals and feasts. She lives in a mud hut and uses the same transportation as everyone else. She is bluntly honest about her short comings and blunders - as well as her wounded pride. I loved that she taught me as a reader so much about the lifestyle and nuances of the tribal culture but, yet, she didn't loose sight of herself as an occasionally anxious participant in the narration. There were no long explanations or interludes of "historical context," we just learned as she did.Her need to have a friend and fit in, her concern about inadvertently causing offense, the way she purposely doesn't paint a perfect picture of the experience - these things made me trust her as a narrator and really connect with what she was going through. Most intriguing to me was the laws of purdah - the seclusion of women - and the intricacies of the relationships between women. There are so many social conventions to remember if you want to be a polite guest or hostess I loved to see the Iraqi womens' sense of self and their history, of their sureness of place in their family and in their society. I'd be interested in reading a follow up - to find out how women in this same part of Iraqi are faring today, nearly 60 years later.Thank heavens for the "cast of characters" chart at the beginning! By the end of reading I maybe recognized ten out of dozens of names - they are just unfamiliar enough to me and similar enough to each other to take some patience. Despite my frustration at being unable to connect people on my own, I really did enjoy this very readable journey.
This book was originally published in 1965, and is still in print. Many university students continue to study this book in anthropology courses. It is important to consider the time frame in which this book was written. Elizabeth Warnock Fernea traveled and lived in a small Iraqi village for two years with her anthropologist husband in the late 1950's. Her observations and experiences are the basis for this book.My sensibilities were challenged early on, in the intro, as the author stated that all names had been changed, but she was fairly certain no one featured in this book would ever read her account, despite the fact that she was acquainted with several literate women in the village. The book then listed the "Cast of Characters", (a culturally insensitive phrase), which enumerated the people of the village and their occupation/kinship relation. However, once one begins to read deeper into the book, it is apparent that Fernea was ahead of her time, as she helps the western reader understand the culture,history, and traditions of this Iraqi village in the 1950's. The women of the village, with their strong ties and supportive networks, felt sorry for the American woman who lived among them with no mother or children. In their culture, to be lonely and without kin was a most unfortunate fate. They take in Fernea and befriend her, which opens the door for understanding that this novel presents.
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I thought this was a very readable account of an American woman's two year stay in an Iraqi village in the mid-1950s. Of course, much of what she described is probably very dated now, but I thought the author did a fairly good job of providing a glimpse into the life and culture of women in the village at that time. In the end, it is a tale of friendship across strong cultural differences and I thought it was written from an interesting perspective. Admittedly, I have not read many personal accounts of this kind so my basis for comparison is fairly limited. Still, I enjoyed it and thought it well worth a read!
—Heather
I think this book is great, most of the time the author maintains a culturally relative perspective. Its great that a woman was able to write it. Many of the traditions and values of the Iraqis in the small village are portrayed adequately, however this novel is an ethnography so it depicts things through one persons view. And the religious aspects of it our very vivid. I enjoyed this book a lot and think its worth reading. You will learn a lot about the culture. This is not a generalization of Iraq, its detailed and very informative as well as interesting. The characters go into depth too. Although at some points BJ offers an ethnocentric viewpoint. Not every culture is the same, so be sure to remember that there is no right way to anything.
—Sabreen
I read this strictly to help me get ready to edit some of our Iraq war coverage, wanting something personal about the Iraqi people. This was a mesmerizing account of a woman who married an American anthropologist and ended up living among women in southern Iraq for a couple years. Her tales of the initial contempt and suspicion they had toward her, and then the way she was embraced and the lives she learned about among these sheltered and tribal women, were vivid and seemed as though they could have been written about last week.
—Mark
