Within the Circle: Parents and Children in an Arab Village / Edition 1

by Andrea Rugh

Overview

When American anthropologist Andrea Rugh rented a room in a small Syrian village, hoping to find time to finish a book she was writing, she never expected to be drawn so deeply into the lives of her neighbors. But she developed close friendships with two households—those of her landlady and her landlady's sister. For eight months Rugh observed and wrote about the lives of these two families and their ten children. The result is a uniquely intimate account of family life and child rearing in Middle Eastern society.

Within the Circle is a detailed, vividly crafted portrait of families in a changing world, chronicling the day-to-day life among family members, between parents and children, and between families and the larger world of the village. The book results from the personal quest of the author to understand the cultural aspects of her own child rearing practices. She contrasts her experiences as an American mother raising three independent, self-sufficient boys with the experiences of village parents striving to form a closely-knit family unit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231106795
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	03/06/1997
Series:	History and Society of the Modern Middle East
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 8.93(h) x 0.59(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

ANDREA B. RUGH is an independent consultant and scholar who has lived and worked for more than twenty years in the Middle East.

Editorial Reviews

Rugh . . . has written a personal account of her stay in a Christian Syrian village near Damascus for eight months. She describes the family life and child-rearing practices of the villagers. . . . Within the Circle offers an intimate view of life in a part of the world that is often falsely stereotyped.

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