Living Hierarchy in Yemen

Abstract: This article investigates how unequal material relationships permeate the lived identities (Williams, 1977) of subordination and domination in the forms of concepts about and enactments, of personhood, emotions, piety and propriety among Muslim women of Zabid, Republic of Yemen. I discuss how the gender hierarchy is entwined with wider forms of hierarchy between the elite and a servant class of people, known as the akhdam. Dominant ideas about appropriately behaved, moral, pious women can serve to make commonsense the domination of others who do not constitute themselves in such ways. In short, moral selves are created at the same time as legitimate hierarchies. Styles of female deference to men (control of body and emotion, veiling and avoidance behaviour, which are thought to demonstrate Muslim piety) ensure the subordination of women to men at the same time they legitimize the superiority of elite women over their servants, who do not comport themselves in such ways. Consumption practices are significant as well for the elite as it consumes its wealth in ways that signify for reputations: it is channeled into the elements of gracious hospitality or consumed rather than hoarded. Resume: Cet article fait ressortir les manieres dont la distribution inegale des richesses envahit les > (Williams, 1977) de subordination et de domination sous formes de perception et d'affirmation de la personnalite, des emotions, de la piete et des convenances chez les femmes musulmanes de Zabid, en Republique du Yemen. J'essaie d'etablir comment la hierarchie sexuelle est enlacee dans des formes plus globales de hierarchie etablies entre l'elite et une classe de serviteurs connue sous le nom de ahkdam. Les idees recues sur les femmes au comportement approprie, morales et pieuses peuvent aussi servir a constituer en > la domination sur les autres qui ne se constituent pas de cette facon. Bref, le > est cree en meme temps que les >. Les modes de deference feminine envers les hommes (controle du corps et des emotions, port du voile et retrait, qui sont censes demontrer la piete musulmane) assurent la subordination des femmes aux hommes en meme temps qu'elles legitimisent la superiorite des femmes de l'elite sur les serviteurs, qui ont d'autres modes de comportement. Les pratiques de consommation sont aussi significatives, car les elites consomment leurs richesses de facon a > leur reputation: la richesse est utilisee pour donner des receptions, elle est consommee plutot que thesaurisee.IntroductionA prominent (and worthy) goal of much Middle Eastern anthropology is to challenge popular Western conceptions of the passive, veiled Muslim woman, to acknowledge their agency while also noting the constraints placed upon them by the system they help to reproduce. Yet the danger of this otherwise laudable goal, as Lila Abu-Lughod notes, is that the time spent arguing against these shadow stereotypes often prevents the production of sophisticated feminist critiques, stopping instead at a mere documentation of the rich variability of Muslim women's lives (Abu-Lughod, 1988: 104-105). Deniz Kandiyoti cautions us of the dangers of being caught in an Orientalist discourse, of keeping our gaze fixed upon the discursive hegemony of the West (1996: 16). We must, these scholars argue, focus not only on the various misunderstandings and misrepresentations of the East-West encounter, but go beyond them to investigate how local gender hierarchies are reproduced in various institutions within complex, heterogeneous Middle Eastern states, states which are themselves situated in wider political and economic relationships in the global system. …

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