CHERYL BENARD
281
would accept immediately without even asking her husband for per–
mission - that was a dead give-away right there. She had no children,
but seemed neither humiliated nor fearful of being divorced when
queried on this sensitive point. And while she might wear the veil,
nonconformities of detail abounded: why was her hair long every–
where but short in front (bangs)? Why did she wear "men's shoes"
(flat Oxfords)? Since her husband was clearly so accommodating,
why didn't she demand more gold jewelry?
In addition to her entertainment value, the foreign guest also
raises elemental questions about one's own lot in life. When Fernea's
husband had to take an overnight trip, he arranged for a woman
from the sheikh's household to stay with Elizabeth. The woman was
shy, and conversation was sparse, but when the two women had
gone to bed and the lights were out, Amina suddenly wanted to
know, "Is your husband kind to you?" When Fernea, puzzled, said
that he was, her companion "sighed and burst into tears," much to
the dismay of her hostess, and proceeded to tell her about a life that
had been marked by little male kindness.
Elizabeth Warnock Fernea submitted to the dictate of nonpar–
tisanship because she was in Iraq only as a wife and had been warned
not to jeopardize her husband's research by making waves.
3
Present–
day women anthropologists, however, operate under self-imposed
injunctions. Their determination to avoid neocolonialist judgements
can lead at times to dizzying feats of apologetics. A good example is
Sherri Deaver's essay, "The Contemporary Saudi Woman." To be–
gin with, the author announces that she hopes to avoid prevailing
stereotypes about Arab society. To this purpose, she proposes two
hypotheses:
1)
that segregation on the grounds of gender does not
necessarily imply female subordination; and
2)
that one does not
need to possess social power to have a positive self-image. So far, so
good. Unfortunately, Deaver does not really intend to test these hy–
potheses; she intends to defend them. She does not exactly distort
the facts, but she certainly stretches them. For example, Deaver con–
trasts the personality traits that are considered by Saudi society to
characterize men with those that they consider descriptive of women.
Here are the male traits: strong, capable of making decisions, capa–
ble of abstract and logical thinking. Now here are the female traits:
3. Guests ofthe Sheikh, An Ethnography
of
an Iraqi Village
by
Elizabeth Warnock Fernea
N.Y. 1965.
