Cari Friesen paper

Poetic Discourse and the Honour Code: Alternative Discourse through Sung Poetry among the Bedouin, Andalusians, Berbers and Tauregs

Poetry and song are significant elements in the lives of people around the world. They often describe emotions and sentiments related to the singer’s experience, or more broadly, to a public experience common to the community. In some communities, these poems and songs give voice to sentiments which are not discussed in ordinary, everyday language. Lila Abu-Lughod has introduced the concept of multiple discourses, or counter-discourses, juxtaposed against each other and complementing each other. She argues that both discourses legitimately express the cultural ideology of a particular community (Abu-Lughod 1985b, 258). This concept is particularly relevant to communities based on the so-called “honour code,” a moral ideology that underlies their way of life. In this paper I will consider the concept of an alternative poetic discourse within daily life through an exploration Bedouin society in comparison other Mediterranean communities that emphasis a similar ideology.

The Honour Code

The “honour code” plays an important role in many nomadic societies in the Middle East and throughout the Mediterranean world. While Abu-Lughod suggests that the exact moral ideals that form the basis of the honour code may vary from one Mediterranean culture to another, this paper will not explore the differences. Rather I will touch on discussions of the honour code in other cultures only as relevant to the discussion of the poetic discourse and its juxtaposition with ordinary speech.

In Veiled Sentiments Abu-Lughod (1986b, 79) explores how Bedouin society values equality through autonomy and independence, autonomy becoming a standard for measuring status in the social hierarchy. Since this ideology of autonomy stands in tension with the social realities of status differentiation, she suggests that the two are mediated through the notion of authority derived from moral worthiness. Thus “individuals must earn the respect on which their positions rest through the embodiment of their society’s moral ideals” (Abu-Lughod 1986b, 86). Racy describes three sets of related cultural traits that express these moral ideals (I quote his extended explanation only for the first set, which is most relevant): (a) “honor” and “shame,” “phenomena that are associated with sexuality and power, as honor is linked to masculinity and the social implications of maleness, whereas shame is experienced when manhood is undermined or when women’s chastity is question” (b) “hospitality” and “chivalry,” and (c) “bravery” and “militancy” (Racy 1996, 405).

Abu-Lughod further explores these categories in relation to Bedouin society, noting specifically the concept of hasham (connected with ideas of modesty, shame and shyness) and which she describes as the “honour of the weak;” the appearance of voluntary deference or submission as the honourable mode of dependency (Abu-Lughod 1986b, 105).

Bedouin society

Bedouin society is based on a patrilineal, tribally organized political and social system (Abu-Lughod 1985a and 1986a). The Awlad ‘Ali in particular, are semi nomadic pastoralists in the process of sedentarization. Their everyday social world is divided into two; one half for the adult men, and the other for women and children. This separate women’s world is internally regulated, and structures through principals of kinship and seniority similar to society as a while, while hierarchical structures are not as pronounced as among men. While women collude to keep a barrier of silence around their community (supporting male avoidance because it allows opportunity to express independence and defiance), they have access to the outside world through the young and low-status men who easily pass through the permeable separation between the two gender-segregated communities.

The segregation is permeable, because the division is a relatively informal, mutual avoidance based not on the wishes and power of particular men, but rather on “the sexual division of labor and a social system structured by the primacy of agnatic bonds (those between male and female paternal kin) and the authority of senior kinsmen, and maintained by individuals whose attitudes and actions are guided by a shared moral ideology” (Abu-Lughod 1985a, 640).

Discourse of Honour, Discourse of Poetry

Within the above mentioned segregation and stratification of the social order, the Awlad ‘Ali Bedouin make use of multiple discourses in discussing their emotional response to events in their lives. In ordinary discourse, for example, expressions in response to loss, poor treatment, or neglect are hostility, bitterness and anger, while the response to lost love is expressed through extreme indifference and denial of concern (Abu-Lughod 1986b, 187). Abu-Lughod argues that these sentiments are appropriate to what she calls a “discourse of honour,” located in the context of the dominant honour code ideology. Due to the cultural ideal of an independent autonomous figure, unwilling to submit to others and commanding respect through physical and emotional self control; she explains that to express weakness or to admit that one is wounded or deeply affected by loss “is to admit a lack of autonomy and self-control, a dependency through vulnerability” (Abu-Lughod 1986b, 205).

Poetic discourse, on the other hand, expresses through ghinnawa, sentiments that run counter to those expressed in ordinary language. The Ghinnawa are short poetic forms, similar to the haiku in that they are formulaic and traditional, seemingly impersonal. However they also allow for creativity, although insight into the ambiguous metaphors depends on understanding of the context, tied to references to other songs within the ghinnawa repertoire (173). Abu-Lughod notes that they are either recited or sung, both styles in an almost chant-like fashion. The sung version of the poems repeats words and phrases, while also reversing the word order (178, 179).

Where ordinary discourse expresses hostility, bitterness, or denial, ghinnawas reveals vulnerability through sentiments of deep sadness in betrayal:

Memories stirred by mention of the beloved should I release, I’d find myself flooded…

Oh eyes be strong you cherish people and then they’re gone… (Abu-Lughod 1985b, 245, 246)

despair, loss or sadness at separation:

The night of the beloved’s parting cloud cover, no starts and no moon… (Abu-Lughod 1986b, 195)

Tears increased oh Lord the beloved came to mind in the time of sadness… (179)

or the sense of mistreatment:

I never figured you’d do wrongs like these, oh they hurt…

Forced by drought in the land to seek refuge among peoples of twisted tongues… (196)

Even emotions regarding marriage are expressed through ghinnawa, where it would be inappropriate in ordinary discourse. They reveal the pain and longing of separated lovers, difficulties adjusting in a marriage, and even pride in a desired husband: A falcon, not a sparrow he lifted his hood and brought his prey… (291)

Abu-Lughod argues that this poetic discourse is subversive in that “it gives voice to experiences and emotions that lie outside those culturally prescribed as appropriate” (1986a, 164) but at the same time it conforms to social values through its very nature. The use of ghinnawa demonstrates the self-mastery and control of channelling strong emotions into a conventional and formulaic medium, while also demonstrating the voluntary nature of an individual’s conformity to the code of social values (Abu-Lughod 1985b, 257). Recitation or singing of ghinnawa also conforms to social norms through segregation and hierarchical stratification of performance. As a discourse of intimacy, it “usually does not cross the boundaries created by differential power and status, or gender” (Abu-Lughod 1985a, 252).

Examples of Bedouin Music, Taken From Beduin music of southern Sinai [sound recording]

examples????

Alá dal 'úna, performed by Group of fishermen from the Syro-Lebanese region

Hudjaini - Caravan Song, peformed by Tarabin Tribe

Three Simsimiyya Tunes, performed by Al-Tur lutist, drummer

References

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- - - 1989. Bedouins, Cassettes and Technologies of Public Culture. Middle East Report, 159: 7–11, 47.

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Gilmore, David D. 1986. Mother-son intimacy and the dual view of woman in Andalusia: Analysis through oral poetry. Ethos, 14 (3): 227–251.

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--- 2000. Grief at seeing a daughter leave home: Weeping and emotion in the Tuareg Techawait postmarital residence ritual. Journal of American Folklore, 113 (450): 391–421.