Preface

Summary

This study was carried out in three phases: a first year during which I studied Berber and classical Arabic, and acquired a grounding in North African and Islamic sociology and history; I then spent nearly eleven months in the field interrupted by a long period of illness; and finally two years on research and writing a Ph.D. thesis (if the period of illness is included). This book is based largely on the thesis, with quite radical reproportioning, so that the emphasis should fall on women rather than ‘social stratification’. I am indebted to the British Department of Education and Science for a three-year Hayter Studentship, to the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research for a generous field-work grant, to the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, for awarding me the Anthony Wilkin Studentship in 1970–1, and to Girton College, Cambridge, for the J. E. Cairnes Research Scholarship which was generously awarded to me in 1969, 1970 and 1971.

My intellectual debts are many and their value more difficult to measure. I have to thank Dr James Bynon of the School of Oriental and African Studies for a patient and expert introduction to the subtleties of Berber language and culture, and Dr Robin Bidwell of Cambridge who generously opened his entire bibliography to me, commented with humour on some of the preliminary chapters and even acted as my supervisor at one stage.