Ethnography Response Paper over Guests of the Sheik The Women of El Nahra
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The acclaimed ethnography, Guests of the Sheik, gives an incredible detailed and informative personal account of Iraqi culture. Author, Elizabeth Fernea, went to the small village of El Nahra, for no other reason than to help her anthropologist husband gather data for his field dissertation. Little did she know, her process of enculturation and the place she would take in this "oppressed" society, would lead to this extraordinary narrative, reveling to Western culture the humble, dignified yet hidden life of Muslim women. I think Fernea's methodology and process of enculturation provides remarkable insights into this misunderstood culture, making this a timeless ethnological masterpiece.
Just as Boas and Malinowski showed at the beginning of the 20th century, the most effective method to accurately account and understand a culture is first hand field work: the physical act of going to a culture and living with its people. Fernea and her husband recognized the value of actually going to their field of study, so they took a two year "honeymoon" to the small, remote village of El Nahra. Even though Fernea had no previous anthropological experience, she became an incredible participant observer. She recognized that she needed to partake in all the activities and lifestyle of the women in order to understand their hidden world. Even before they arrived in the village, she commented, " I had thought, and Bob had agreed, that the women might accept me more readily if I met them on their own terms. Thus although I had balked at wearing an all-enveloping black abayah, I had elected to live like the women of El Nahra- in relative seclusion behind walls, not meeting or mixing with men" (Fernea, 5) So Fernea sought out to enculturate herself into the substituent culture of these women...