Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin SocietyUpdated Edition With a New Preface Lila Abu-Lughod lived with a community of Bedouins in the Western Desert of Egypt for nearly two years, studying gender relations and the oral lyric poetry through which women and young men express personal feelings. The poems are haunting, the evocation of emotional life vivid. But her analysis also reveals how deeply implicated poetry and sentiment are in the play of power and the maintenance of a system of social hierarchy. What begins as a puzzle about a single poetic genre becomes a reflection on the politics of sentiment and the relationship between ideology and human experience. |
Common terms and phrases
agnates anthropologists Arab argue asked associated autonomy Awlad Awlad Ali Bedouin society Bedouin women behavior bonds bride brother Cairo camp chapter circumcision classical Arabic clients close cousin cultural ideals Cyrenaica daughter deference dependents described discourse divorce Egypt Egyptians elder everyday experience express father feelings female gender genre ghinnāwas girls Haj's hasham hierarchy hijab honor and modesty honor code honor killings household husband identity ideology of honor individuals Islam kinship Libyan lineage lived marriage married Marsa Matruh meaning men's menstruation ments moral mother Muslim older ordinary parallel-cousin Pashtun paternal patrilineal poems poetic poetry political polygyny Rashid recited refer relations relationship respect response ritual romantic love Sa'adi sense shame share sheep sing social system songs status story taḥashsham tent tion traditional tribal tribe values Veiled Sentiments wedding Western Desert wife wives word young