A01=Margaret M. Vale
A01=Margaret Mary Vale
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and Culture
and Life in an Egyptian Oasis
and the history and customs in which they are rooted
Architecture and the Arts
Author_Margaret M. Vale
Author_Margaret Mary Vale
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JHMC
Category=WFV
Category=WTH
COP=Egypt
Costume
CRAFTS & HOBBIES Folkcrafts
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Egypt Travel and Photography
Egyptian Cookery
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Jewelry
Language_English
Lifestyle
Margaret M.
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Siwa
SOCIAL SCIENCE Anthropology Cultural
softlaunch
The timeless allure of Siwa through its traditional crafts
TRAVEL Middle East Egypt
Vale
Product details
- ISBN 9789774166815
- Weight: 447g
- Dimensions: 150 x 230mm
- Publication Date: 19 Apr 2015
- Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
- Publication City/Country: EG
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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Siwa 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.
Margaret 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.
