Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society [Paperback]

Lila Abu-Lughod (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520063279 | ISBN-13: 978-0520063273 | Publication Date: February 11, 1988

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.
[Note: This 1987 edition is now out of stock. A New Updated Edition is now available.]

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A valuable contribution in many areas, giving us new dimensions of nomadic and Arab culture, poetry, women, and gender roles and a fresh way of looking at the interrelatedness of the ideology and politics of sentiment. An outstanding anthropological ethnography of the Bedouin of the Egyptian desert, as well as an unusually skillful analysis of gender and social structure as it is expressed through womens poetic discourse. -- International Journal of Middle East Studies

From the Inside Flap

"A truly extraordinary book--beautifully and modestly written, remarkably insightful, consistently compelling."--Edward Said, author of Out of Place: A Memoir

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 317 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (February 11, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520063279
• ISBN-13: 978-0520063273
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #619,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Veiled Sentiments, June 1, 2000

By 

"hannah1350n" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society, (Paperback)

This book is one of the best ethnographies I've come across. The author's ability to see beyond the stereotypes and catch-phrases surrounding "veiled" women is astounding.

Abu-Lughod is capable of insight I believe dozens of modern anthropologists and social scientists have yet to discover...and her direct look at the way that power is manifested through alternative forms and agendas is matchless. In particular, her dicussion of the way in which women's modes of power work outside of the more studied realms reveals that resistance has a history and discourse all its own.

This book is definitely an excellent answer to those who want to view Islamic women as voiceless. And though the author attempts to show aspects of silence and veiling as manifestations of cultural distinction and identity, she is also quick to note in later chapters that it is Western influences that manage to increasingly isolate the veiled woman and reduce her realm of influence.

Provacative and intense, Abu-Lughod also has a touch of the poet in her, and this book reads easily. She wraps each intellectual argument in a thick blanket of anecdote and conversation, helping the reader create his/her own conclusions.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous Insight, September 24, 2006

By 

AA "ashour001" (Newton, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society, (Paperback)

Lila Abu Lughod, an Arab American woman, lived among the Awlad Ali tribes of the North West of Egypt for two years. Veiled Sentiments is the book she wrote on the lives and poetry of Awlad Ali. Abu Lughod field work was clearly not carried out from a "superior" stance; she sympathized with her subjects and dealt with them as equal human beings rather than inferior specimen or cultures. Abu Lughod attitude, intelligence, training and tremendous analystical ability helped her in developing great insight and understanding of this fascinating culture.

Abu Lughod analysis of concepts such as "hishma" was truly incisive and shed a great deal of light on the nature of modesty between women and men and amongst men and women. The analysis seems to explain behaviors and norms witnessed elsewhere in Egypt and indeed other parts of the Middle East.

An important thesis of Abu Lughod is that the Awlad Ali people often communicated in very conservative and modest way directly through words; they only said what was proper and fitted the norms. Yet a second mode of communication far more true and expressive was found in their little songs or poems.

Abu Lughod discussed gender relation amongst Awlad Ali at length and the relationship between women and the families of their husbands and the society at large. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it. For an excellent work on veiling and gender issues, I would recommend Leila Ahmed's Women & Gender in Islam.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evocative ethnography, May 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society, (Paperback)

I agree with the other reviewers. It was the best ethnography I can remember reading. What struck a chord with me was her description and explanation of the women's submission to the men, that the submissiveness was valuable only when it was voluntarily given. The idea of women being submissive to men is not only Islamic, but exists also in Christianity.