concludes with a short critique of the U.S. The author captures the complexity of an outsider living in a traditional Arab society, where what is said is not always what is meant. ' focuses on the themes of violence, honor, and hospitality in Arabic tribal society, and cultural misunderstandings and the efforts of a nonnative to be accepted in another culture. Reviews BookĮxcerpts About the Author Reviews Praise for Yemen Chronicle Placing his contradictory experiences in their full context, Yemen Chronicle is not only an assessment of classical ethnographic procedures but also a meditation on the political, cultural, and sexual components of modern Arab culture. It was 2001 before Caton could return to Yemen to untangle the story of why he had been imprisoned and what had happened to the missing girls.

Then, unexpectedly, Caton himself was arrested and jailed for being an American spy. A man who was helping to resolve the dispute befriended Caton, showing him how the poems recited by the belligerents were connected to larger Arab conflicts and giving him refuge when the sanctuary was attacked. This was cause for war, and even though the culprit was captured and mediation efforts launched, tribal hostilities simmered for months. One day a neighboring sheikh came angrily to the sanctuary village where Caton lived, claiming that a man there had abducted his daughter and another girl.

Yemen Chronicle is Caton's candid account of the extraordinary events that ensued. The recent hostage crisis in Iran made life perilous for a young American in the Middle East worse, he was soon embroiled in a dangerous local conflict. Caton went to a remote area of Yemen to do fieldwork on the famous oral poetry of its tribes.

Media Issues, Communication & Journalism.

Computer Science & Information Technology.

Yemen Chronicle by Steven C. Caton