Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T18:53:58.705Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Concealment vs. Display: The Modern Saudi Woman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Sherri Deaver
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This essay set out to explore the paradox of the Middle Eastern woman. The dichotomy of concealment vs. display is a stereotype in western culture and a function of sexual division in modern Arabian society. From the Saudi point of view, seclusion is necessary in the public domain whereas in the private domain display is appropriate. Private space is usually female space. It logically follows that belly dancing, a display mechanism, is done in female space by females for other females when the audience includes nonkin.

In the college community, “proper” belly dancing (as defined by the Saudi subgroup of the community Dhahran) can take place only under certain cultural conditions. When constraints break down, both the style and the message change. There are two alternative explanations for the aberrant performance. It may be considered (1) a simple example of deviance, i.e., a violation of the rules, or (2) an example of culture change in mental notions and hence “airport art.” No attempt has been made to assign priority to either explanation or to say that one is more correct. Deviance compounded and perpetuated is culture change. Also, it is necessary to remember that in a multicultural community the same behavior may be categorized differently by different subgroups. Little is to be gained, except, perhaps, a false simplification of the data, by assigning priority to either of the analytical or folk interpretations.

Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , Spring/Summer 1978 , pp. 14 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES CITED

Antoun, Richard 1968 “On the Modesty of Women in Arab Muslim Villages.” American Anthropologist 70:671–697.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bock, Philip K. 1969 Modern Cultural Anthropology. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Bonannan, Paul 1961 “Artist and Critic in Tribal Society.” In The Artist in Tribal Society, Smith, Marion W., ed., New York: Glencoe, pp. 85–94.Google Scholar
Deaver, Slierri 1977 “Space, Worldview and Architectural Form in a Multinational Community (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia),” paper presented at the Central States Anthropological Society Meetings, March 31-April 3, 1977, Cincinnati, Ohio.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford 1965 “Religion as a Cultural System”. In Reader in Comparative Religion, Vogt, E. Z. and Lessa, W., eds. London: Tavistock, pp. 167–78.Google Scholar
Graziani, Joseph 1976/1977 “The Status of Women in the Contemporary Muslim Family.” Middle East Review (Winter): 41–51.Google Scholar
Hanna, Judith Lynne 1976 The Anthropology of Dance Ritual. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms.Google Scholar
Hanna, Judith Lynne 1977 “To Dance is Human: Some psychobiological bases of an expressive form.” In The Anthropology of the Body, Blacking, John, ed. New York: Academic Press, pp. 211–32.Google Scholar
Hanna, Judith Lynne 1977 “Toward Semantic Analysis in Movement Behavior.” Semiotica, in press.Google Scholar
Ibsen, Lois al Faruqi 1976 “Dance of Muslim Peoples.” Dance Scope 11(1): 43–51.Google Scholar
Mason, John P. 1975 “Sex and Symbol in the Treatment of Women: the Wedding Rite in a Libyan Oasis Community.” American Ethnologist 2(4): 649–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mernissi, Fatima 1976 Beyond the Veil. New York: Halstead.Google Scholar
Nelson, Cynthia 1974 “Public and Private Politics: Women in the Middle Eastern World.” American Ethnologist 1(3): 551–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spradley, J. P. and McGurdy, D. W. 1972 The Cultural Experience. Chicago: S.R.A.Google Scholar
Wood, Leona and Shay, Anthony 1976 “Danse du Ventre: A Fresh Appraisal.” Dance Research Journal 8(2): 18–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar