Devon Bennett

27 Oct 2003

Fundamental Similarity of Perceivably Different Communities

There are several issues and criteria that denote a community’s social identity. These can vary widely from governmental regulations to recreational past times. Countries separated by distance, language and other defining traits have grown closer through advances in technology and transportation. Even before these breakthroughs, however, similarities could, and can today still be found in vastly different civilizations. The characteristics of the human race run deeply in any society, and can easily be seen throughout the world. These characteristics, which affect interaction at the levels of both family and community, are existent in some form in every civilization. Elizabeth Fernea’s Guests of the Sheik, and Barbara Anderson’s First Fieldwork: Misadventures of an Anthropologist, both illustrate these humanistic traits through the eyes of their female protagonists. The Iraqi community of El Nahra, and the Danish community of Taarnby are fundamentally similar in their governmental, communicative, and familial social structures.

The interaction between official and unofficial government figures plays a key role in the evolution of El Nahra and Taarnby. While both cities are part of an organized national government, they are also benefited, or (depending on ones’ view) prejudiced by a strong informal social hierarchy present throughout the community. Iraq , entering into a social and political revolution, suffers from the clash of ideas between tribal and national government. The sheiks of the Iraqi desert have served as father figures to their respective tribes, and fail to see the advantage of their replacement by western democratic and capitalist ideals. Many Iraqi citizens, such as Jabbar, who have traveled and become acquainted with other communities, feel this tribal system is archaic. “A hundred, even twenty years ago, he had a place, but not now. It is too bad, really; Sheik Hamid will fight in all sincerity because he feels he is right, that sheiks and tribes are still important” (Fernea, 94). Tribe members closer to home find the traditional security of their decentralized government an irreplaceable necessity.

The citizens of Taarnby have likewise developed a social system to which they turn to explain the unwritten procedures of their little society. This Danish community is less formally constructed than the Iraqi El Nahra, having created this social government through time and circumstance rather than tribal lineage. The result, however, is the same. In Taarnby, just as in El Nahra, the people encounter a perpetual tug-of-war between time-proven tradition, and urbanizing civilization. When Barbara Anderson approaches the birth of her new daughter, Sarah, there is a mounting tension to choose between the doctors of Copenhagen and the midwife from Taarnby.

Midwifery is an old and respected practice. Delivery at the Royal Hospital in Copenhagen was limited to cases where difficulty was anticipated. To unleash for networking this testimony of the cowardice of the American woman and the ignominy of robbing our unborn child of the right to villager status would be a folly. ( Anderson , 53)

This experience is not directly related to the governmental composition of the country, but does illustrate the intrinsic tension between local custom and national policy. Iraqi and Danish communities bear resemblance one to another in their strong social hierarchy as well as in a social state that is detached from the political effects in the world around them.

Because they are socially isolated from the world, communication of key information in Iraq and Denmark is accomplished through an intricate network of gossip common to smaller communities. It may be due to the sparse population or limited activities throughout the township that these communities thrive on knowing every new occurrence within their geographical sphere. In such a close-knit relationship, where neighbors rely on each other for most day-to-day necessities, knowledge of one another’s activities is critical to daily operation in both El Nahra and Taarnby. Anderson commented, “Simply to endure Taarnby depended on the highly developed social network” ( Anderson , 38). This necessity is even compared to life-sustaining water by Fernea in explaining the daily routine of the Iraqi women. “Neighborhood women tended to drop by, for water, for gossip, for advice” (Fernea, 128).  As both Guests of the Sheik and First Fieldwork are written from a foreign anthropologist’s point of view, it is interesting to note that even their perception of this art of communication is similar as they pursue their scientific enlightenment. Fernea suffers from a misunderstanding that leads her at first to criticize the Iraqi’s tale sharing. She feels she’s being made the brunt of an endless string of jokes told at her expense, and only later learns the colloquialisms that distinguish prejudice from factual statements. “As my Arabic improved, it seemed to me that many times the women were talking about me, and not in a particularly friendly manner” (Fernea, 70). First Fieldwork’s author goes so far as to avoid informing the villagers of Taarnby, viewing their ‘gossip’ as a pathetic attempt to learn about the Americans. “What she wants is to find out where we’re going, and I’m damned if I’m going to tell her. This village is going to have to learn that some things are our own business” (Anderson, 40). This dynamic social interaction, although sometimes misunderstood by outsiders, creates a distinctive social identity for both El Nahra and Taarnby.

            Communication is also imperative to the organization and support of the family and a common priority in the communities studied by both Elizabeth Fernea and Barbara Anderson. This familial unit, which has existed in some form in every human society, has a similar importance throughout the villages of El Nahra and Taarnby. The axiom ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ holds true in both these locales. These children have a social structure all their own, and find themselves at home in any and all houses they enter. The Danish community treats its children as a joint responsibility, if not a communal possession. The children are fed wherever they are playing, and special holidays are even planned upon their delights. “For the village loves its children and had been planning for days for their enjoyment and feeding” (Anderson, 119). A child’s stomach is not the only thing filled, however, as their minds devour every bit of knowledge of trade or skill that the child’s host may possess. “Tove is going to pickle herring in small jars and I get to put on the labels” (Anderson, 108). “Katie learned to knit in one home, do cross-stitch at another, to paint furniture in a third, and was to do holiday baking in a half-dozen kitchens” (Anderson, 37). The children are accepted as part of daily life, and seldom is their presence unwelcome. Fernea’s Guests of the Sheik does not delve as deeply into the realm of children. Elizabeth does, however, play on their omnipresence and curiosity throughout El Nahra. “’Away with you,’ she said good-naturedly, but made no attempt to back up her words as she led the way” (Fernea, 28). As in Taarnby, the presence of children is quite normal in the Middle East , and whether they are one’s own offspring or not makes little difference.

            A slightly less well-known trait of the family life addressed in both ethnographies is the influence women have in the home. It is true that man-woman interaction is much less restricted in Taarnby than El Nahra, yet the male head-of-household is still a predominant ideal. Even so, wives and mothers play an increasingly influential role inside the home that has effects reaching far into the village’s social life. In Iraq, the question of marriage most often is decided not by the bride or groom, but by the boy’s mother. She decides who her son will or will not marry. “Men sometimes considered themselves victimized by their mothers, who always had the final say in choosing their sons’ wives” (Fernea, 164). This same power is wielded in the lives of the men of Taarnby, who consider very seriously what their wives suggest as a proper course of action. “’I have been instructed to take care of the windows,’ he announced, grinning sheepishly, ‘by my wife’” (Anderson, 52). The families of both coastal Denmark and those of the Iraqi desert are as tightly knit, if not more so, than the communities in which they live.

            Danish rural life and Iraqi desert society, as studied and portrayed by Barbara Anderson and Elizabeth Fernea, both show several inherent characteristics that prove them to be fundamentally similar in their makeup and communal structure. The isolation of these areas causes a societal rift between tradition and evolution, affecting the size of generational gap present in both towns. These people have a special interaction, understood by all members of the community, consisting of the gathering and sharing of all possible information throughout the village. The family, a key part of the growth and development of its members, serves as a model of the intimate cooperation evident in Sheik Hamid’s El Shadda tribe, as well as in the fishing port of Taarnby , Denmark . The physical position of Taarnby and El Nahra, being isolated by both distance and lack of communication with the outside world, allows these communities to adopt the qualities herein discussed. These qualities, inherent to both, are the common bond and similarity they hold one with the other.

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