936 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST
pilgrimage center of Morocco. Concentrating
on the maraboutic descent category of the Sher-
qawi as his case study, Eickelman is able to show
the reader the ways in which certain key con-
cepts within the local interpretation of Islam
Serve to provide a meaningful and coherent
world view guiding social action. Individuals
follow the guidance of the Sherqawi in order to
achieve both redemption in the next world and
social benefits in this world. Members of the
Sherqawi descent category also manipulate re-
ligious ideology and symbols to achieve certain
goals and positions, acquire status and power,
and, by so doing, bring about, over time,
changes in the cultural ideology. These ideolog-
ical changes, in turn, restructure the social
order. Thus, following the model developed by
Geertz, Eickelman views sociocultural change
coming about as the result of a lack of fit be-
tween behavior and the symbolic systems that
are supposed to structure and guide social ac-
tion. This incompatibility between ideology and
action is seen as a perduring aspect of Moroccan
society.
In concluding the study, Eickelman notes the
different meanings given to the maraboutic
tradition in urban and tribal areas and the ef-
fects on these traditions of changes introduced
by the French colonial experience. Islamic re-
form movements have also, within the historical
context of the Muslim world, put pressures on
the “cult of saints” so that the former is in the
ascendancy and the latter in relative decline,
although still extremely popular.
Essentially the same idea runs throughout
Martin’s book, i.e., the ideology of Islamic
reform spreading throughout the 19th-century
Muslim world and into Africa through the net-
works developed by religious scholars and Sufis,
and the various reactions to such reform. Mar-
tin also stresses the sweeping effects on Muslim
society of Western colonial expansion into the
Middle East and North Africa, thereby empha-
sizing the interrelatedness of mystical religious
expression and participation in political move-
ments. Associated with this is Martin’s interest
in the varying degrees to which the movements
sought the aid of the Ottoman Turks (as part of
a Pan-Islamic conception) in their opposition to
the Christian colonial powers. Finally, the
theme of millennialism constantly crops up
throughout the eight movements discussed by
Martin, who notes that social and ecological
conditions fostered the expectations of an apoc-
alyptic redeemer (Mahdi). Certain leaders ex-
ploited the millennia1 idea to a greater extent
[81, 19791
than others, although Martin does not ade-
quately come to grips with this problem but falls
back on the hope that others will follow up on
this topic.
I. M. Lewis, in his History and Social Anthro-
pology, has said that “history affords the social
anthropologist a much neglected laboratory for
testing the validity of structural assumptions
and social mechanisms” ( 1 9 6 8 : ~ ~Eickelman
).
has used his historical laboratory quite adeptly
by testing sociological assumptions derived from
his fieldwork and deftly intertwining them with
theory to create a sophisticated and well-written
account of popular Islam in Morocco. Martin’s
approach is, despite its historical one-sidedness,
nevertheless quite useful, for it stimulates the
reader to ask probing sociological questions of
his data, although without, unfortunately, find-
ing many answers.
The Aith Waryaghar of the Moroccan Rif:
An Ethnography and History. David Mont-
g o m e q Hart. Viking Fund Publications in An-
thropology, 55. Tucson: University of Arizona
Press, 1976. xxiii + 556 pp. $20.00 (paper).
Fadwa El Guindi
University of California, Los Angeles
The book is misleadingly subtitled A n Eth-
nography and History since it can be viewed
more properly as a sourcebook on the Waryag-
har of the Moroccan Rif. The text can con-
veniently be divided into two parts, plus an in-
troductory orientation chapter and a conclud-
ing chapter on change. One part consists of 11
chapters that give a detailed descriptive ac-
count of the Aith Waryaghar society and cul-
ture, with the ethnographic present taken to be
“as they existed before effective European (i.e.
Spanish) control was imposed in 1926” (p. 4).
The methodology is historical reconstruction via
interviewing, and secondary sources comple-
mented by participant-observation of the con-
temporary system.
The second part consists of five chapters on
the sociopolitical history of Morocco, with some
emphasis on Waryagharland, presented
through secondary sources from published and
unpublished documents and manuscsripts.
Although the history provides a valuable con-
text for the ethnographic account and should
prove convenient and informative for a scholar
dealing with the region, it is not connected in
any way to the first part. As a whole, the work
 ETHNOLOGY
lacks systematic or even convenient organiza-
tion. The layout of material on the sociocultural
system of the Aith Waryaghar is confusing. The
breadth of the coverage is lost in the fragmented
presentation of scattered observations. This is
not to deny the value of the interesting data and
the ethnographic information.
Hart is at his best when presenting the
natives’ interpretation of their behavior and
model of their system, and at his worst when he
gives his own. One example will suffice. Hart
states that “all eat with their fingers out of the
same bowl, using bread to scoop up the gravy:
commensality fort$ies the egalitarianism so ap-
parent in the social structure” (p. 46, emphasis
added). Is eating with fingers out of the same
bowl more egalitarian than, for example, eating
with identical forks and plates? It is perhaps
more plausible to argue that eating out of the
same bowl reflects a cultural emphasis on shar-
ing as opposed to individuality.
Generally, the study is weak in theory. Hart
uses a taxonomic framework, and the analysis of
the ethnographic material suffers from weak-
nesses intrinsic to that approach. He also raises
nonissues, e.g., tribe, complementary filiation,
etc. However, he is to be praised for his criti-
cisms of previous works on the region and his
often valuable corrections of factual informa-
tion in existing sources.
Hart’s analysis of the segmentary descent
system, expressed in the natives’ model in terms
of their notion of “khams khmas” and how it ar-
ticulates structurally with the “liff’ system of
alliance, is solid. The dynamics of these two
systems as expressed in his analysis of the institu-
tion of feuding and “haq” payment (chapters
10, 11, 12) can be considered the valuable con-
tribution of this book.
The writing suffers from ethnocentric
remarks. For example, Hart writes, “It is a
truism that time is not conceived of in Western
terms, as a commodity that is either ‘saved or
‘wasted,’ and, condescendingly, “even though
many Rifians now wear watches and are per-
fectly able to ‘tell time’ ’’ (p. 47).
The breadth of coverage is remarkable.
There is something for everybody, but it is
especially informative for anthropologists of the
Arab East and historians. It is striking, though,
that with such breadth in general ethnographic
coverage the women of Aith Waryaghar are
nearly dismissed. Coverage of their roles and ac-
tivities is minimal and sporadic and is generally
outmoded in its orientation and assumptions.
Hart contradicts many of his own generaliza-
937
tions. For example, in the section describing
house building, he says that it “is exclusively a
male concern” (p. 38) but contradicts himself in
his description of the women’s exclusive role in
whitewashing the walls and painting the floors
of the house. And further, in the section on land
and agriculture he states, “agriculture, the
dominant activity, is ... exclusively a male
concern” (p. 47); yet on the same page he goes
on to describe how women are responsible for
three tasks that “overlap into the men’s agri-
cultural domain . . . ” (p. 47). And in another
section he states that “religion”is the domain of
men “as opposed to sorcery and magic the do-
main of women” (p. 48), an assertion that is
contradicted by his description of the rain-in-
ducing rituals (p. 50), where both men and
women participate in separate rituals. In this
last example the problem is compounded by the
taxonomic orientation, which forces one to im-
pose an arbitrary division between magic and
religion. Is a magical ritual taking place in a
mosque magic or religion? Had Hart used the
notion of “complementarity,” a simple but use-
ful notion that neither contradicts segregation
nor implies equality, he would perhaps have
been able to describe some of those activities
more adequately.
Hart writes that “in structural terms, women
[are] handed around in marriage . . pro- .
viding links of alliance in which they them-
selves, being passive instruments of policy, had
little or no voice” (p. 13). and that “women may
and often do have very considerable importance
‘behind the scenes’ and in certain particular
cultural domains (such as sorcery), but their
structural importance, in most Muslim groups,
is close to zero” (p. 10). First, having or not hav-
ing voice is not structural. Second, if they are
the instruments in marriage how can their
structural importance be close to zero? Can
“something else” be passed around to achieve
the same alliances? Third, their importance
does seem to be “in the open” if, as Hart de-
scribes in the chapter on market, women have
their own markets (pp. 86-88). He relates (in a
footnote) an incident where the women pushed
two men (guards) at gun point out of the
womens’ market. This indicates that women are
jealous about their exclusive space and domain,
not merely passively excluded from the men’s
domain.
But we cannot understand the dynamics of
spatial segregation as it interrelates to the com-
plementarity of roles because the activities of
women are not covered. It is my opinion that a
938 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST
study that does not adequately describe
women’s activities, attitudes, and concerns is
not an incomplete ethnography; it is a wrong
account.
A Persian Stronghold of Zoroastrianism:
Based on the Ratanbai Katrak Lectures, 1975.
Muly Boyce. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1978. xv + 284 pp. $19.95 (cloth).
Patricia J. Higgins
State University of New York, Plattsburgh
Sharifabad-eArdekan is a mall village north of
Yazd that has the distinction of maintaining the
oldest of all Zoroastrian sacred fires and of hav-
ing been the Yesidence of the Irani High Priest of
Zoroastrianism for several centuries. As a result
of these historical circumstances, plus the geo-
graphic isolation that made this village a suit-
able refuge for Zoroastrian leadership in a
period of persecution, the villagers of Sharifa-
bad continue to practice a very conservative
form of Zoroastrianism. It is this conservatism
that attracted the author to this village.
Professor Boyce, an Orientalist, expert in
Middle Persian and Parthian languages, and
author of numerous scholarly works on Zoroas-
trianism, spent seven months in Sharifabad in
1964-65. As a guest of the headman of the
village, she observed family and village rituals
and accompanied the local priest on his rounds
as he ministered to the needs of his parishioners.
This book describes in minute detail the
religious beliefs and observances of the
Zoroastrian villagers. It is clear that Boyce is a
meticulous observer, catching minor discrepan-
cies in the ritual performances and carefully
questioning her informants until she can say
with certainty which matters are prescribed and
which are optional or variable.
It is unfortunate, however, that more atten-
tion has not been given to other aspects of
village life, for the reader comes away conver-
sant with all of the ritual behavior but unable to
place this in a larger context. In addition, the
anthropologically oriented reader will be struck
by the virtual absence of any reference to
theoretical issues, whether drawn from the
study of history, religion, social change, minori-
ty groups, or any other area of sociocultural in-
quiry. The most pressing questions posed by the
author conce-rn the degree to which the rituals
and beliefs of Sharifabad correspond to those
[81, 19791
laid out in the Avesta or other ancient writings
and to those found among the more reformist
and better studied Zoroastrians of India. Fur-
thermore, rather than using the textual mater-
ials as an aid to understanding the religious and
ritual behavior of the villagers of Sharifabad, or
religious and ritual behavior in general, the
data collected in Sharifabad are used to il-
lustrate the Zoroastrianism of the ancient past.
Nevertheless, the book is a veritable storehouse
of data and is likely to be of interest to specialists
in ritual and religion as well as to students of
Iranian culture.
Water and Tribal Settlement in South-East
Arabia: A Study of the Aflaj of 0man.J. C.
Wilkinson. London: Oxford University Press,
1977. xvi + 276 pp. $28.50 (cloth).
Brian Spooner
University of Pennsylvania
This is a remarkable book. It covers the geog-
raphy, history, and sociology of Oman. It is
comprehensive, detailed, and impressive in its
erudition and comparative and theoretical
perspectives. The author is a geographer and
apparently also an accomplished Arabist who
worked in the area from 1957 to 1966 and has
revisited it since. He writes well, and his work is
important for the geographer, the historian, the
anthropologist, and the Arabist. For the anthro-
pologist in particular, it compares favorably
with the best work in cultural ecology. Wilkinson
starts from the position that “present systems of
water organization in Oman” appear not to sat-
isfy “the requirements of an agricultural
economy based on qanat” (a capital-intensive
form of irrigation engineering associated with
Iranian civilization). His argument begins with
the distribution of natural resources. He then
demonstrates the intimate relationship between
the social organization of the population and its
ecology and puts it to work to explain the histor-
ical development of Oman. As the argument
proceeds, he describes the problems and
possibilities of the various pastoral and
agricultural practices. None of the important
issues are missed or dodged-salinity, heat
tolerance, the productivity of Bedouin pastoral-
ism, lineage organization in relation to ter-
ritoriality and land use patterns, stratification,
parallel cousin marriage, the ambiguity of
secular and religious leadership. All are treated