العربية
  • Free & Easy Returns
  • Best Deals
العربية
loader
Wishlist
wishlist
Cart
cart

Siwa Paperback English by Margaret Mary Vale - 01/15/2015

Sorry! This product is not available.
1
Available Soon
Overview
Specifications
PublisherThe American University in Cairo Press
ISBN 139789774166815
ISBN 109774166817
Book DescriptionSiwa is a remote oasis deep in the heart of the Egyptian desert near the border with Libya. Until an asphalt road was built to the Mediterranean coast in the 1980s, its only links to the outside world were by arduous camel tracks. As a result of this isolation, Siwa developed a unique culture manifested in its crafts of basketry, pottery, and embroidery and in its styles of costume and silverwork. The most visible and celebrated example of this was the silver jewelery that was worn by women in abundance at weddings and other ceremonies. Based on conversations with women and men in the oasis and with reference to old texts, this book describes the jewelery and costume at this highpoint of Siwan culture against the backdrop of its date gardens and springs, social life, and dramatic history. It places the women’s jewelery, costume, and embroidery into social perspective, and describes how they were used in ceremonies and everyday life and how they were related to their beliefs and attitudes to the world. The book also describes how, in the second half of the twentieth century, the arrival of the road and of television brought drastic change, and the oasis was exposed to the styles and fashions of the outside world and how the traditional silver ornaments were gradually replaced by gold.
About the AuthorMargaret M. Vale has an MA in social anthropology from the University of London. She has traveled extensively and lived for long periods in the Middle East, where she studied and collected desert jewelry and textiles. In Egypt she developed an interest in Siwan life and culture and has lived in the oasis and visited it regularly.
LanguageEnglish
AuthorMargaret Mary Vale
Publication Date01/15/2015
Number of Pages248

Siwa Paperback English by Margaret Mary Vale - 01/15/2015

Added to cartatc
Cart Total EGP 0.00
Loading