Nubian Ethnographies [Paperback]

Elizabeth Warnock Fernea (Contributor), Robert A. Fernea (Author), Aleya Rouchdy (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0881334804 | ISBN-13: 978-0881334807 | Publication Date: September 1990

Written from several perspectives, the majority of this ethnographic collection chronicles the period of Nubian history in the 1960s just before 50,000 Egyptian Nubians were moved from their ancestral home along the Upper Nile due to the building of the Aswan High Dam and the rising waters it backed up. The first half, by Elizabeth Fernea, is an engaging personal account of the experience and process of fieldwork in Nubia and the author's interaction with Nubian society. The focus is on the lives of the Nubian women and children--their place in the wider society, their customs and beliefs, social life, attitudes toward health and child care. The second half, by Robert Fernea, is an ethnography providing a descriptive overview of Nubian society and culture--the result rather than the experience of fieldwork. An up-to-date concluding essay discusses what has happened to the Nubian peoples since their resettlement.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Also by Elizabeth Fernea and available from Waveland Press: A Street in Marrakech: A Personal View of Urban Women in Morocco.

Product Details

• Paperback: 203 pages
• Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc (September 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881334804
• ISBN-13: 978-0881334807
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,863,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book (but all material is reprinted), September 15, 2000

By 

Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nubian Ethnographies (Paperback)

This book presents a wide-ranging description of Nubian culture by juxtaposing reprints of 3 different works by the authors. The first section, representing a woman's observations of Nubian village life before relocation, consists of excerpts from Elizabeth Warnock Fernea's "A View of the Nile". Following that are excerpts from Robert Fernea's work from the same time period, "Nubians in Egypt: A Peaceful People." The book concludes with an update on Nubian culture in the 1980s from a paper given by Robert Fernea and Aleya Rouchdy and published in "Nubian Culture: Past and Present". If you have the original works, you naturally don't need this book. But for others, this book is a very convenient and succinct summary of several viewpoints on Nubian culture.