YEMEN ETHNOGRAPHY
Najwa Adra, Ph.D.
The village of al-‘Urra as it looked in 1979. Photo: Daniel Varisco
Najwa Adra conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork in rural Yemen, beginning with 24 months of research in Al-Ahjur, 1978-79, 1983 and 2005. She conducted field research elsewhere in Yemen connected to consulting assignments in 1983, 1984-1986 and 2001-2005. Her research topics include local definitions of tribalism, customary law and tribe/state relations, the anthropology of dancing, the initial impacts of television on a rural community, women's cultural, economic and political participation and reproductive health.
Below are selected articles and papers and lectures on the ethnography of Yemen. Please click on the title to access the article in pdf where this is available.
Tribalism and Customary Law in Yemen
2022 Potential Contributions of Yemeni Tribes to the Emerging Yemeni State (presented in Arabic: إمكانية مساهمة القبيلة في استقرار الدولة اليمنية ). Tribes and the Future of Yemen. Webinar organized by the Organization of Yemeni Academics and Professionals, August 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFSXE_2FCyc
2021 Qabyalah. Or What Does It Mean to be Tribal in Yemen? Book Chapter in Tribes in Modern Yemen: An Anthology. Marieke Brandt, ed. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sammlung Eduard Glaser. Open Access: https://austriaca.at/9783700186199
2021 Decolonizing Tribal “Genealogies” in the Middle East and North Africa. Roundtable: Tribes and Tribalism in the Modern Middle East. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 53:492-406. doi:10.1017/S0020743821000805.
2018 Tales from al-Ahjur. Yemen Cultural Institute for Heritage and the Arts. Published online at https://www.yciha.org/tales-from-alahjur/
2016 Tribal Mediation and Empowered Women: Potential Contributions of Heritage to National Development in Yemen. International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 5(2):301-337.
2015 Don't Throw Out the Baby with Social Evolution. Anthropology News, 11/16/2015.
2011 Tribal Mediation in Yemen and its Implications to Development. In AAS Working Papers in Social Anthropology, Volume 19. Austrian Academy of Sciences.
2006 Law: Customary: Gulf and Yemen. In The Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. Suad Joseph, ed. Volume II:418-419. Leiden: Brill. Available online: http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-women-and-islamic-cultures/law-customary-gulf-and-yemen-EWICCOM_0109dfemale-yemen-EWICCOM_0159h?s.num=2&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopedia-of-women-and-islamic-cultures&s.q=Najwa+Adra
Economics: Agricultural Labor. Yemen. Volume IV:136-137, 2007. Available online:
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-women-and-islamic-cultures/economics-agricultural-labor-yemen-EWICCOM_0226f
Economics: Land Reform. Yemen. Volume IV:215, 2007. Available online: http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-women-and-islamic-cultures/economics-land-reform-yemen-EWICCOM_0238e?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopedia-of-women-and-islamic-cultures&s.q=Najwa+Adra
1998 Dance and Glance: Visualizing Tribal Identity in Highland Yemen. Visual Anthropology, 11:55-102.
l993 Tribal Dancing and Yemeni Nationalism: Steps to Unity. Revue du Monde Musulmane et de la Méditerranée, 67(1):l6l-l68. Translated into Arabic in, Al-Yaman Kama Yarah al-Akhar. L. Taminian and A. al-Auj, eds. Pp. 327-338. Sanaa: American Institute for Yemeni Studies (1997). Click below for the Arabic translation.
1985 The Tribal Concept in the Central Highlands of the Yemen Arab Republic. In Arab Society: Social Science Perspectives, First edition. N.S. Hopkins and S. E. Ibrahim, eds. Pp. 275-285. Cairo: The American University of Cairo Press.
1983 Qabyala: The Tribal Concept in the Central Highlands of the Yemen Arab Republic. Doctoral Dissertation in Anthropology, Temple University.
The Impacts of Social Change and Television
1996 The ‘Other’ as Viewer: Reception of Western and Arab Televised Representations in Rural Yemen. In The Construction of the Viewer: Media Ethnography and the Anthropology of Audiences. P. I. Crawford and S. B. Hafsteinsson, eds. Pp. 255-269. Højbjerg: Intervention Press.
1984 Affluence and the Concept of the Tribe in the Central Highlands of the Yemen Arab Republic (co-authored with Daniel Martin Varisco). In Affluence and Cultural Survival, R. F. Salisbury and E. Tooker, eds. Pp. 134-149. Washington, DC: The American Ethnological Society.
Women's Cultural, Economic and Political Participation
2020 Women, Violence and Exiting from Violence with a Gendered Approach: MENA Region and Diaspora, with Nadje Al-Ali, Sana Farhat, Danièle Joly, Pénélope Larzillière and Nicola Pratt. In, International Panel for Exiting Violence (IPEV), Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. In French and English. Authored a chapter on Yemen in the report. A longer version is expected to appear as a Working Paper with the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.
2016 Tribal Mediation and Empowered Women: Potential Contributions of Heritage to National Development in Yemen. International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 5(2):301-337.
2013 - 2014 Women and Peacebuilding in Yemen: Challenges and Opportunities. Policy Brief, Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF). Available online: https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/173204/ca9106951a2408f79cdadbf30fc9c244.pdf
Republished in Open Democracy, January 21, 2014
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/women-and-peacebuilding-in-yemen-challenges-and-opportunities/
2013 The Impact of Emigration on Women's Roles in Agriculture in the Yemen Arab Republic. (Revision and update of a 1983 report.) Report prepared for FAO, Rome.
2008 Oral Poetry, Women’s Empowerment and Literacy in Yemen. Unpublished paper presented at the panel, The Diversity of Yemeni Poetry. Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association. Washington, DC, November 23, 2008.
2008 Invited participant. UNIFEM/UNDP/Gender at Work initiative on Gender and Democratic Governance in Development, New York, NY, December 11, 12. Contributed to A User’s Guide to Measuring Gender-Sensitive Basic Service Delivery
2006-2007 Articles for The Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. Suad Joseph, ed. Leiden: Brill:
Law: Customary: Gulf and Yemen. Volume II:418-419, 2006. Available online:
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-women-and-islamic-cultures/law-customary-gulf-and-yemen-EWICCOM_0109d
Body: Female. Yemen. Volume III:47-48, 2006. Available online:
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-women-and-islamic-cultures/body-female-yemen-EWICCOM_0159h?s.num=2&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopedia-of-women-and-islamic-cultures&s.q=Najwa+Adra
Economics: Agricultural Labor. Yemen. Volume IV:136-137, 2007. Available online:
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-women-and-islamic-cultures/economics-agricultural-labor-yemen-EWICCOM_0226f
Economics: Land Reform. Yemen. Volume IV:215, 2007. Available online:
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-women-and-islamic-cultures/economics-land-reform-yemen-EWICCOM_0238e?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopedia-of-women-and-islamic-cultures&s.q=Najwa+Adra
1986 Situation Analysis - Women. UNICEF, Sanaa, Yemen Arab Republic. Includes, Bibliography of Women and Children in YAR, and an annex, The Situation of Children in YAR.
1983 Local Perceptions of Breastfeeding, Fertility and Infant Care in Al-Ahjur, Yemen Arab Republic. Unpublished report prepared for the Population Council, Cairo, Egypt.