Ginger and Salt
WOMEN IN CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Series Editor
This series presents ethnographic case studies that address theoretical, methodological, and practical issues in basic and applied fieldwork; it also includes cross-cultural studies based on secondary sources. Edited by Sue-Ellen Jacobs, the series aims to broaden our knowledge about the varieties and commonalities of womens experiences. One important focus of the series is on women in development and the effects of the development process on womens roles and status. By considering women in the full context of their cultures, this series offers new insights on sociocultural, political, and economic change cross-culturally.
First published 1989 by Westview Press
Published 2018 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gilad, Lisa.
Ginger and salt: Yemeni Jewish women in an Israeli town / Lisa
Gilad.
p. cm.(Women in cross-cultural perspective)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8133-7686-6
1. WomenIsraelSocial conditions. 2. Jews. Yemenitelsraei
Social conditions. 3. ImmigrantslsraeiSocial conditions.
4. YemenEmigration and immigration. 5. IsraelEmigration and
immigration. 6. IsraelEthnic relations. I. Title. II. Series.
HQ1728.5.G55 1989
305.4295694dcl9
88-28063
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-0-367-01285-4 (hbk)
For my grandmother
Sarah Zychick
I like to make acknowledgments because it is one of the few ways to say thank you. First there are the three generations of my own family whose financial and emotional support enabled the research and writing-up of this study. They include my grandparents, Sarah and Julius Zychick; my parents, Charlotte and Larry Gould; and my siblings Tammy and Marc Gould. My late brother, Brian, helped in ways he will never know. He died shortly before I began field work; he spent a number of Sabbaths with the Yemenis of Gadot, who grew to love him and he them. When I arrived in the field, people who knew him opened their doors to his sister, a miskena (wretched one) because she was grieving. In this way, the Yemenis also helped me to adjust to my loss.
During field work, the Jerusalem Centre for Anthropological Research and the William Wyse Fund of Trinity College, Cambridge, generously provided financial assistance. The New Hall Travel Fund enabled me to make a return trip to Israel to tie up loose ends. The Wyse Fund also provided a maintenance grant during the final stage of the writing of my Ph.D., on which this book is based. The Fortes Fund generously provided funds to that effect, as well.
In Israel, the most credit goes, of course, to the Yemeni Jews of Gadot and to other residents, who were very hospitable and generous with their time. I thank them for accepting me as bat bayit , a daughter of the house. A special thanks goes to my research assistant and friend, who is called in this book Amalia, for her remarkable work habits, for completing a follow-up questionnaire after I left the field, for always making time for me, and for her patience and understanding.
A number of anthropologists helped me in Israel, particularly in choosing a place of research and identifying key issues. They include Don Handelman, Alex Weingrod, Yael Katzir, Yedida Stillman, Henry Abramovitch, and the sociologist Lea Handelman. My debt to Phyllis Palgi for her help throughout all stages of my Ph.D. cannot be repaid. Her work experience among Yemenis for over thirty years was generously shared with me. The late Eileen Basker made invaluable suggestions for understanding my material, and I valued her encouragement. Yosef Tobi, a Yemeni Jewish historian, made criticisms on the chapter on Yemen; without his help inaccuracies would have appeared.
In Cambridge, Martha Mundy added considerably to my knowledge of Muslim Yemeni society. The late Meyer Fortes, who was my supervisor during pre-field work and field work, always asked provocative questions. Esther Goody, my supervisor during the initial writing-up of this study, was wonderful at making sense out of a lot of hard data. Sue Benson, friend and teacher, provided emotional support and academic criticism throughout; my gratitude to her for this and for reading several earlier drafts of this study cannot be expressed in words.
The Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge, and the Queen Elizabeth II Library of Memorial University kindly provided me with the office space to write this book. Pat Little and Jeannette Gleeson patiently typed the manuscripts, and Helen Peters swiftly performed as copy editor. Also in St. Johns, Judy Adler and Cecilia Benoit made fruitful comments.
A special thank you to Unni Wikan in Oslo for sharing with me her 1982 slides of Yemeni Jews in Yemen, a rare treasure, and for permitting me to use them freely.
Five people read the final versions of this manuscript (besides the anonymous readers to whom I am extremely grateful). Three specialists on women and society, Ziba Mir Husseini, Deirdre Meintel, and Sue-Ellen Jacobs, helped considerably, as did Nigel Rapport. And last, but foremost, my husband, Robert Paine, has been following my progress with Yemeni Jewish women for seven years. Not only did he read and comment on two drafts of the manuscript, but he heard about it over numerous lunches and helped me to arrange my thoughts. He believed in me, and I would not have written this book without him.
And, my thanks to Jessica Erin, for putting up with an absentee mother even if she didnt know any better.
Lisa Gilad
Gadot and Asher, the two towns mentioned in Ginger and Salt , are pseudonyms. All names of persons in the study are also pseudonyms and certain details have been changed in order to protect peoples privacy.
The first time a Hebrew or Arabic word is used, it is italicized; in subsequent appearances it is not. All Hebrew and Arabic words appear in the Glossary.
Throughout the book I have kept the text largely ethnographic and analytical. Readers wishing to understand more about my analyses or to receive more information, particularly of a cross-cultural nature, are advised to read the notes as they go along. Readers wishing to read primarily for ethnographic content, can skip the notes until the end of the chapter.
L. G.
1
Introducing Ginger and Salt
It was a quiet autumn morning in Gadot, Israel; everyone was at work or at school. I was at my typewriter, trying to remember some of the events of the previous evening. Suddenly, through my open windows I heard a womans sobs. I ran out to the square to see what the problem was. There was Adinaa Yemeni Jewish woman, forty-nine years old, mother of ten childrensobbing. She was moving from side to side, extending her arms to the sky as if asking God to help her. Since we knew each other well, I asked what troubled her so; she replied that it was too awful to speak about. I insisted that she come to my flat for a cup of coffee, and finally, after an hour of tears, she poured out her heart. The night before her husband had defiled her; instead of waiting until fifteen days after the onset of menses and her immersion in the mihveh (ritual bath) as required by religious law, her husband forcibly had sexual intercourse with her. She could not understand his behavior because he had not done so in thirty years of marriage. More important, and this was the reason for her tears, she feared that the evil eye would destroy her whole family because they did not adhere to the family purity rituals (tahamt hamishpahah).
