In 1979, Steven C. Caton went to a remote area of Yemen to do fieldwork on the famous oral poetry of its tribes. 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 and tribal hostilities simmered for months. Yemen Chronicle is his extraordinary report both on events that ensued and on the many theoretical--let alone practical--difficulties of doing ethnography in such circumstances. Caton also offers a profound meditation on the political, cultural, and sexual components of modern Arab culture--Publisher.

Prologue: Graveside -- Sanctuary -- "Anger be now thy song" -- "We are all one" -- Interlude -- Muhammad the Maswari -- War -- An idyll -- Prisoner of the state -- Ramadan nights -- Farewell -- Travel advisory -- Epilogue: Hope.