Outline of "Behind the Veil in Arabia, intorduction, ch2 and ch3" by Julia Huang

Unni Wikan, Behind the Veil in Arabia: Women in Oman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991[1982]). Part I: Introduction, Chapters 2 and 3 (pp. 3-48).

Outline by Julia Huang

時間：2008年 2月 29日
地點：國立清華大學 人文社會學院
導讀人A：黃倩玉
導讀人B：李玉珍


Preface

– two methodological remarks:
1. A subjective account:
Aiming at two kinds of readers: “primarily, the general reader with an interest I Arabia or in gender roles, and secondarily, my anthropological colleagues” (p. ix)

Acknowledging her – and anthropologists’ in general – view as subjective: “…Sohar is seen through my eyes, and the material speaks through my voices. For this I make no apologies… It is my conviction that much social science would stand to gain by greater readiness to acknowledge this predicament” (p. ix)

Note that this is written in 1976-1978 (p. xi) about 10 years before the publication of Marcus and Fischer’s Anthropology as Cultural Critiques (1986) and Clifford and Marcus’ Writing Culture (1986).

2. Writing against jargons:
“The gap between anthropologists and general readers is immense, not only as between our languages, but also I our ways of thinking about the world. This I think most unfortunate. If anthropologists are to help make a better world, they must be able to communicate with that world… anthropologists often seem to mystify themselves, as well as their readers, by using excessive jargon.” (pp. ix- x)

Cf. Margery Wolf’s writing style

Introduction: Finding Our Way
Methodological note: she and Barth went together, lived in Oman for 8 months :from Mar – Aug 1974; and from Dec 1975-Jan 1976. During which, 6 months were in Sohar in the northern coast.

“It is the story of the everyday life of people in this town, and among them particularly the life of Arab women, that I try t tell in this book” (p. 3)

The first anthropologists!
“Oman was till 1970 a closed country, uniquely representative of traditional Arabic civilization almost untouched by modernization” (p. 3)

Women’s burqa, or facial mask:
“It seemed to epitomize or embody crucial features of women’s identity, honor, and grace in Sohar. And in Oman, the burqa is worn by townswomen only in the northern most part of the region known as the Batinah coast, of which Sohar is the major town” (p. 3)

Getting there (pp. 3-7)
Arrival (p. 7)
Settled down first house (p. 8)
Note on participant observation (p. 9)
Even a public well didn’t serve the “entrance” for p-o
Key informant, Bauji (p. 10)
“I encountered nothing but warmth and hospitality. … with great tact, tolerance, and sensitivity… (p. 10) …Because of their tact, sensitivity, dignity and tolerance, they did not gossip and thereby tell me about neighbors, acquaintances, and local events” (p. 10)
Not knowing what’s going on (p. 11)
New embarrassment – the delipidated one-room house (p. 11)
Heat and physical frustration, and boredom (p. 12-13)

The realization:
“Behind the gracious façade…” (p. 13)
“what I failed to sense then was that, to Soharis, the ‘as if’ is as true as the private knowledge, …” (p. 13)

Women do not gossip (p. 14)
Change in method on the second trip
Change in relation with the Soharis (p. 14-15)

Chapter 2 Sohar: The First Exotic Glimpse (pp. 16-26)

A wedding and many more questions

A detailed and lively ethnographic description
Dynamics of initial relationship with informants
The struggle between the general readership and the academic tone
Methodological reflection: What do I know from this? P. 24; what do write and how? P. 25-6

Chapter 3 The Town and its People

l A former glory now a backwater. Yet people still are proud of its location. Wikan reminds us times and again that it’s been a city, not a closed place. As she writes at the end of this chapter:

In Sohar, we are not confronted with an overgrown village, recently integrated into a larger market and developing some urban features. On the contrary, we must be prepared to recognize an ancient, cosmopolitan city, and a population with a sophisticated, traditional urban culture.”

pp. 27-29
dull landscape, beautiful manners
the town as sa source of conscious pride: second in importance only to the capital of Muscat-Mattrah
hospital, summer house of the Sheikh of Abu Dharbi
its location by the largest valley of the upper Batinah, the Wadi Jizzi
heat – hibernation
need for water – 2 kilometer to Sohar town

l The Pattern of Settlement

l The Wali

l Commerce and Production

l The Milieu of Women

l Residence Patterns
Coresidence; not preferred, but for the protection of women

l Cultural and Social Diversity
Arabic as the lingua franca
Ethnic groups: true Arabs 1/2; Persians and Baluchis 1/3; others
u Arab vs. Baluch: Baluchi (came from Makran, on the Iranian-Kakistani coast) women’s dress and accessories (p. 40), Baluchi women’s pride in ritual and abstaining from sexual (pp. 40-41)
u Arab’s superiority
u The Ajam (a traditional term for Persians and used generally for the local Farsi-speajers)
u Zidgalis
u Hindus (or Banyans)
Religion and ritual: Ibadhism (majority in inner land), Sunnis, Shiah
“The Baluch are Sunni, most Ajam are Shiah, but so are some Arabs, whereas other Arabs are Sunni or Ibadhi.” (p. 42)
For women: (p. 43)
between ex-slaves and persons of free origin
between Bedu and settled
Zatut: low-status group, wandering and marry for love (p. 44)
Town and Village:
Wealth and Lifestyle: much mobility, competition (p. 44)
Nothing prevent intermarriage. The only line one may draw is religion between Shiah and Sunni or Ibadhi

Overview (pp. 45-46)
Q: “How do differences in culture and background appear to color the lives and relationships of Soharis—and particularly the women?”
What matters is, for the men, the individual personal qualities of the other; for the women, proximity” (p. 45)
On Bedu: “Their customs are bad… As persons, on the other hand, they are good…” (p. 45)

The Sohari tolerance (QUOTE p. 46)

The Historical Perspective