SOCIALICULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 717

This compelling analysis of the status of Hausa women in Nigeria, West Africa, ex- plores pressures for change in a strongly Mus- lim society. The Hausa, comprising the largest subnational ethnic group in West Africa, offer a valuable case for examining tensions be- tween Islam and “Western” culture. Calla- way bases her analysis on data collected dur- ing 1981-83 in Kano State, northern Nigeria, and on historical source material to generate a reconstruction of the role of Hausa women from the 10th century to the present. Callaway documents that Hausa women held recog- nized positions of power for nearly a millen- ium; this political experience ofelite women in particular declined over centuries with the in- creasing influence of Islam. Colonial policy from the late 19th century further reinforced the position of women as political minors.

In this account, contemporary Hausa women in Kano emerge as closely confined to the domestic domain from childhood, their lives characterized by early marriage, high fertility, submission to male dominance, po- lygamy, and seclusion. The analysis attempts to conceptualize the relationship between re- ligion and culture with regard to potential re- forms affecting the status and roles of women. Feminist theory provides the framework for interpreting the ideology ofgender and gender relations in Hausa society. Of particular inter- est is Callaway’s argument, following Chodo- row, that the reproduction of masculine and feminine personalities generated by mother- ing reinforces differential perceptions of gen- der roles among boys and girls. Correspond- ingly, Callaway argues that as a result of Hausa child socialization, adul t Hausa women may appear resistant to change and rationalize their subordinate position.

The examination of the interplay between religion, Hausa cultural tradition, and gender roles presented in the book includes discussion of Islamic law, marriage patterns, educational policy, media perspectives on women, female employment, and political and economic strategies evident in both the local and na- tional arenas. The author observes, for exam- ple, a direct correlation between level of edu- cation and expectations of seclusion, suggest- ing that education is creating new aspirations for marriage and work that may in time lead to a transformation of family structure. How- ever, her conclusions are cautious: she argues that educated elite Hausa women with profes- sional husbands may generate gradual re- forms, but any redefinition of female subordi- nation must proceed on religious grounds, in the language of Islamic justice rather than feminism. The constraints of Islamic law and

deeply entrenched norms and values regard- ing gender mitigate against imminent and fundamental change.

This book provides substantial detail on Hausa society, both in historical perspective and in the context of contemporary Nigeria. Callaway provides statistical documentation of the central themes discussed, as well as nu- merous illustrations and segments of life his- tories of Kano women. The application offem- inist theory to the analysis of Hausa women is insightful, but would have benefited from more consistent interpretation and articula- tion with specific themes throughout the book. Callaway chose instead to present initial the- oretical discussion, followed by presentation of empirical data, returning to the theoretical issues in the final few pages. In addition, the extensive use of statistical correlations occa- sionally leads to confusion and apparent con- tradiction. For instance, the author states that urban mothers claim they want their daugh- ters to attend school in town and suggests that women’s changing attitude toward education is significant. Contrastingly, data presented earlier indicates that women rarely influence significant decisions regarding their children, such as school attendance, plans, or choice of marriage partner. The implications of moth- ers’ attitudes toward education, then, require further clarification. This work is in general, however, a valuable contribution to gender studies as well as to research on social change in Africa and elsewhere in the Third World. It should be of special interest to those con- cerned with feminist theory and with the func- tion of ideology in social dynamics.

Kenyan Communities in the Age of Impe- rialism: The Central Region in the Late Nineteenth Century. Charles H . Ambler. Yale Historical Publications, 136. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988. 182 pp. $27.00 (cloth).

PHILIP L. KILBRIDE Bryn Mawr College

In anthropological discourse the term tribe is nowadays more than ever a suspect concept (Wolf, Europe and the People Without History, University of California Press, 1982). In Afri- can studies, scholars such as Maquet (Afican- i g , Oxford University Press, 1972) have long argued for cultural units which crosscut eth- nic, social, and political boundaries. It is in this theoretical context that Ambler’s book makes a contribution to theory. From his de- scription of 19th-century central Kenya one

718 AMERICAN ANTIiROPOLOGIST [go, 19881

learns that present-day “tribal” units such as stance, in addition to the “tribe” issue there is the Kamba, Kikuyu, and Meru are essentially material concerning cultural ecology. Ambler, colonial and postcolonial projections onto the a historian, would surely find the work of past. Using oral histories collected himselfand Goldschmidt and others, on pastoral-farming archival material, we read that a regional per- contrasts in East Africa to be relevant (Culture spective is necessary for comprehending 19th- and Ecology, Kennedy and Edgerton, eds., century social life. We are told that American Anthropological Association,

the stark contrast between highlands econ- omies and those in the drier hill and plains zones structured regional exchange. . . . Men and women from Meru communities near Mount Kenya carried yams and ba- nanas along the routes to Tharaka, where they could be traded for animal fats, hides and various kinds of beans. . . . Such trade connections spread out in every direction, creating an evolving complex of interlock- ing and overlapping networks of economic interdependence that by the second half of the nineteenth century constituted a coher- ent regional exchange system. [p. 571

While food and livestock products animated regional exchange, demands for salt, iron, or- naments, natron, and ritual service and ob- jects were not insignificant. The latter years of the century witnessed growing external trade as in ivory exchanged for cloth and copper wire. The great famine of 1897 (like earlier food shortages) resulted in the regional circu- lation of female labor as women were some- times pawned in exchange for food and in some instances entire communities moved un- der the leadership of a “Big Man.” The social organization of exchange also included a form of fictive kinship (Giciaro) uniting individuals and families across the region. Thus we learn that “no settled and exclusive ethnic order de- fined social and economic relationships in nineteenth century central Kenya. Indeed, the histories of small communities reveal nothing more clearly than the themes of dynamism, movement, and newness” (p. 7). Ambler’s book concludes with a chapter entitled “Re- defining the Region,” in which he attributes the 20th-century emergence of “tribal” iden- tity to primarily British imperialism and gov- ernance.

This book is valuable for Africanists. Al- though not lengthy, it contains superb biblio- graphic references on local economy, politics, gender issues, and more. The presentation is refreshingly factual. It is less rewarding when a “tribal” theoretical critique is seemingly tacked on in the last chapter. There is virtually no discussion of research methodology, even though Ambler references materials that are critical of the oral history technique. Never- theless, the reader will find rich descriptive material for theoretical interpretation. For in-

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1982). Many modern ethnic groups, such as the Kamba, display internal bifurcation into primarily pastoral and primarily farming subgroups. Ambler notes in several places that pastoral-farming contrasts ( ra ther than “tribe”) were significant components of local identity throughout the 19th century (and be- fore).

Finally, as even more ethnographers and archeologists use the concept of “region,” books such as Ambler’s will acquire greater descriptive import to general anthropology. For example, long ago the pioneering arche- ologist Sanders, and more recently the ethnog- rapher Lamphere, successfully used regional analysis for Mesoamerica and the Navaho, re- spectively (Sanders, in Willey, Prehistoric Settle- ment Patterns in the New World, Viking Fund Publications, 1956, and Lamphere, in Foster et al., Long-Tern Field Research in Social Anthro- pology, Academic Press, 1979).

The Rose and the Thorn: Semiotic Struc- tures in Morocco. Roger Joseph and Tern’ Brint Joseph. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1987. 170 pp. $21.95 (cloth).

SUSAN SCHAEFER DAVIS Havegord, Penmyluania

This is a semiotic analysis which treats Ber- ber weddings in the Moroccan Rif (Aith War- yaghar and Ibuqquyen) as a microcosm of meaning in Rifi culture. Several aspects of weddings are analyzed as sign systems reveal- ing a double coding toward both unity and di- vision. In the process, the authors present their d a t a and analysis as resolving the Geertz-Gellner debate in Moroccan ethnog- raphy, and also as a new vehicle for examining women’s roles. While the book leaves impor- tant questions unanswered, it meets these goals with some success by emphasizing inter- nal dissonance as a characteristic cultural fea- ture.

The title asserts a contrasting structure of Rifi meaning, the rose an allusion to women and the thorn a “dialectical conceit” suggest- ing the authors’ interest in the “contravening influence of women in this Muslim society” (p. 3). The title also refers to unitary and divi- sive influences in society. The authors first in-