Nubian Ethnographies

Written from several perspectives, the majority of this ethnographic collection chronicles the period of Nubian history in the 1960s just before 50,000 Egyptian Nubians were moved from their ancestral home along the Upper Nile due to the building of the Aswan High Dam and the rising waters it backed up. The first half, by Elizabeth Fernea, is an engaging personal account of the experience and process of fieldwork in Nubia and the author’s interaction with Nubian society. The focus is on the lives of the Nubian women and children–their place in the wider society, their customs and beliefs, social life, attitudes toward health and child care. The second half, by Robert Fernea, is an ethnography providing a descriptive overview of Nubian society and culture–the result rather than the experience of fieldwork. An up-to-date concluding essay discusses what has happened to the Nubian peoples since their resettlement.