Synopses & Reviews
A report like no other from the heart of the Arab Middle EastIn 1979, Steven C. Caton went to a remote area of Yemen to do fieldwork on the famous oral poetry of its tribes. The recent hostage crisis in Iran made life perilous for a young American in the Middle East; worse, he was soon embroiled in a dangerous local conflict. Yemen Chronicle is Caton's touchingly candid acount of the extraordinary events that ensued.
One day a neighboring sheikh came angrily to the sanctuary village where Caton lived, claiming that a man there had abducted his daughter and another girl. This was cause for war, and even though the culprit was captured and mediation efforts launched, tribal hostilities simmered for months. A man who was helping to resolve the dispute befriended Caton, showing him how the poems recited by the belligerents were connected to larger Arab conflicts and giving him refuge when the sanctuary was attacked. Then, unexpectedly, Caton himself was arrested and jailed for being an American spy.
It was 2001 before Caton could return toYemen to untangle the story of why he had been imprisoned and what had happened to the missing girls. Placing his contradictory experiences in their full context, Yemen Chronicle is not only an invaluable assessment of classical ethnographic procedures but also a profound meditation on the political, cultural, and sexual components of modern Arab culture.
Review
"A book of exquisite beauty and depth. Caton's keen sensibility and his gift for tuning in to the poetic dimension of spoken Arabic make the reader part of the sanctuary where he lived, a witness on the roads he traveled." --Veena Das, Chair, Department of Anthropology, The Johns Hopkins University
"An extraordinary work--beautifully crafted, deeply subtle, filled with an astonishing cultural sensibility. Few ethnographers have shown their research subjects in such subtle, passionate, and vulnerable depth. This is a brilliant, unforgettable achievement." --Arthur Kleinman, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University
"A superb study of an Arab nation and an engrossing portrait of a stranger in a strange land." --Publisher's Weekly (Starred review)
Synopsis
In 1979, Steven C. Caton went to a remote area of Yemen to do fieldwork on the famous oral poetry of its tribes. The recent hostage crisis in Iran made life perilous for a young American in the Middle East; worse, he was soon embroiled in a dangerous local conflict and tribal hostilities simmered for months.
Yemen Chronicle is his extraordinary report both on events that ensued and on the many theoretical--let alone practical--difficulties of doing ethnography in such circumstances. Caton also offers a profound meditation on the political, cultural, and sexual components of modern Arab culture.
About the Author
Steven C. Caton, a professor of anthropology at Harvard University and director of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies, is the author of
Lawrence of Arabia: A Film's Anthropology. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York City.