Veiled Sentiments

When she begins her ethnographic research with the Awlad ‘Ali, Lila Abu-Lughod is 26 years old, excited to learn about Bedouin women but still fairly new to the field of ethnography. She describes herself as “suited” to the insular, far-away Bedouin world because her “temperament” and “interests” thrive in “a small group whose members [she] could come to know intimately” (22). Abu-Lughod, who is only partly Arab/Muslim, struggles to integrate herself as an unmarried American woman above marriageable age. However, her listening ear and unconventional, “nondirective approach” earn the trust of many in the village (21).

Abu-Lughod’s writing is scholarly, but her style is also narrative. As she integrates the stories that she hears, embedding them in the social settings that render them additionally complex, she shows that she values narrative, folkloric style. In these settings, Abu-Lughod tends to be more of a listener. Often, the poems that she records require translation from languages and dialects with which she is not familiar.

Even as Abu-Lughod takes up the mantle of an “insider,” she still possesses limited access to the realities of individual experience to which she is so profoundly compelled.