Domestic government

About this book

Domestic Government explores the notion of 'household' as the site and organizing model not only of production but also of politics in Yemen's past and present. Its innovative vision of a house-based society challenges segmentary interpretations of traditional Arab rural societies and cuts across some of the key thematic divisions of Middle East studies such as 'the harem' and 'Islam'. Based on three years' fieldwork in a village of North Yemen, the study is written from the vantage point of women's society but, insisting that domestic government is not the same as women's private domain, it is not confined to a study of women. Mundy instead links the idea and organization of the household with property and suggests subtle ways in which household and house relate to locality, region and wider notions of government and legal authority. . Her combination of intimate ethnographic portraits and analytical techniques of family history is supported by a critical review of both Western and Arab trends of scholarship on the family and traditional society in the Middle East and serves to place the study of Arab society within the mainstream of anthropology and social history.