Analysis Essay
Write about “Guests of the Sheik” by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea
Fernea was not originally trained as an anthropologist, but she has written an exceptional ethnography based on
her experience living in a small Shi’ite village in southern Iraq before the 1958 revolution. (This was one of the regions that was attacked by Saddam Hussein in the mid-1990s). Although Fernea was there to accompany her anthropologist husband while he did his fieldwork, she developed a unique perspective of life in a tribal Islamic village. She was perhaps the first person to write cross-culturally about the role of women in a society where purdah (the veiling and seclusion of women) is the norm.
Rather than take a western (and ethnocentric) approach to understanding these customs, Fernea is able to put them in their proper cultural perspective, and to give us a detailed, human–and humane–report on what it means (and just as importantly, what it does not mean) to be female in a traditional patrilineal and patrifocal society. Your paper should be an analysis (Not a “book report”), which focuses on the gender roles in the traditional tribal Islamic community of El Nahra.
Specifically, you should write a paper in which you analyze and discuss ideas about satisfaction, security, authority, power, and autonomy for women in the El Eshadda tribal society of El Nahra, tying your discussion to what you’ve learned about that society’s cultural ethos and values.
1) A strong introduction to the paper topic/thesis – From what different things do women derive their
satisfaction, power, authority, and security in El Nahra?
2) A brief summary of the book as it relates to the topic;
3) Evidence/examples to prove your point (support your thesis);
a. You should deal with some/all of the following: customs of dress, visiting, relationships, marriage, friendship, work, leisure and rituals, children, lineage, religion.
4) Discuss ways in which the women in these traditional societies enjoy certain freedoms that women in North America do not.
5) A summary of your discussion highlighting why this topic is important and how you supported your analysis.