Vanessa Lopez

Professor McGill

ANT 101-S70

June 20, 2019

Expressed Sentiments

After reading the book Veiled sentiments, author Lila Abu-Lughod allows us as the

readers to really experience the Bedouin culture. Abu-Lughod lived with a community of

Bedouins in the Western Desert of Egypt for nearly two years, studying gender relations and the

oral lyric poetry through which women and young men expressed personal feelings. Ghinnawa

refers to the "little songs" that the people of Bedouin society, especially women, used to express

personal and intimate feelings. Ghinnawa are recited in the presence of people in the same

gender/class, portraying an honest depiction of their true sentiments on their life, love and

personal emotions. They were always recited in private except for during a wedding or other

place where it is acceptable to display affections. Women were supposed to hide their emotions

and act very modest during their day because modesty is a sign of honor or "hasham" in Bedouin

society. Ghinnawas are relevant to sociocultural anthropology because it shows how different

cultures value different things. The poems were haunting, the evocation of emotional life vivid.

But her analysis also revealed how deeply implicated poetry and sentiment are in the play of

power and the maintenance of a system of social hierarchy. What started as a puzzle about a

single poetic genre became a reflection on the politics of sentiment and the relationship between

ideology and human experience.

 Abu-Lughod did her fieldwork between 1978 and 1980 and lived with a host family in a

particular Awlad ‘Ali (Bedouin) community. Awlad ‘Ali is the whole of Bedouin tribes in the

western Egyptian desert, where Veiled Sentiments takes place. There are around 15 households

where Abu-Lughod stays. The society as a whole is patriarchal, preferring patrilateral marriage

bonds, and having close ties to religion. This society is wealthy enough to prosper, and often

define themselves as autonomous, ignoring Egyptian laws. The anthropologist had initially

planned to study “the patterning and meaning of interpersonal relations, in particular between

men and women.” (25) However, Abu-Lughod soon discovered the prevalence of informal

poetry performances by many members of her community. These poems are called ghinnawa to

the Bedouin. Thus, she changed the course of her research to instead focus on the use of poetry

in personal expression and confidential communication. This somewhat drastic change of plans,

although her new topic embodied elements of social interaction as well, portrayed an

ethnographic strength: Abu-Lughod was flexible about what would be her specific research. She

let the important aspects of the Awlad ‘Ali come to surface and then pursued this poetic

discourse understanding that it had some great presence and role in the community. This was

indicative of a transformation from classical to modern anthropology, in which the researcher

works retrospectively rather than prospectively. Thus, unlike previous anthropologists Abu-

Lughod’s objectives of research evolved while she was in the midst of her research. Abu-

Lughod’s eventual research goal was to study the sentiments that are portrayed through the

Awlad ‘Ali poetry form. Specifically, she intended to show that sentiments can actually

symbolize values and that expression of these sentiments by individuals contributes to

representations of the self, representations that are tied to morality, which in turn is ultimately

tied to politics in its broadest sense. What are individuals symbolizing about themselves through
expression of these non-virtuous sentiments? After looking at the poetry and sentiments through

individual expression, Abu-Lughod turned to the large scale in terms of the politics of the

discourses of sentiment, ideology, and ideology in its connection to the human experience.

Abu-Lughod begins Veiled Sentiments with an informative preface, which gives

historical context to the time when she did fieldwork in western Egypt versus the state of the

country and community today. This accounts for the differences between then and now, such as

the increasing role of globalization on the Awlad ‘Ali. She also takes this time to express her

discomfort in rereading her ethnography, particularly in the presentation of people in the book as

subjects in a scientific project. This uneasiness about rereading is a problem that many

anthropologists must feel in retrospect, so it is helpful that she touches on this before the reader

moves into the ethnography. This admission is also honest and refreshing to a reader who may

not have thought in those terms. Abu-Lughod is critical of herself and her methodologies, which

is crucial for any researcher.

Abu-Lughod then moves into the body of her ethnography with grace. Her overall diction

and style of writing are informative and honest. The writing is narrative, as it tells a story about

the people she lived with, and it seems that she uses this ethnography as a way to transfer

Bedouin stories to a larger audience. She moves through the ethnography discussing the

confidentiality of poetry, it is not appropriate to tell a woman’s poem to a man, the sentiments

discussed in poetry, mourning the death of a child, matters of love, autonomy and hierarchy,

sexuality which is especially private, issues of honor and vulnerability, and finally the ideology

and politics of sentiment. The overarching theme is that poetry is used as a vehicle to express
sentiments that are not necessarily talked about in the open; poetry is a particular discourse of

how to express taboo.