Daughters of Tunis is an innovative ethnography that carefully weaves the words and intimate, personal stories of four Tunisian women and their families with a statistical analysis of women's survival strategies in a rapidly urbanizing, industrializing Muslim nation. Delineating three distinct network strategies, Holmes-Eber demonstrates the "public" role of neighborhoods as informal social security systems, and the impact of women's education, class, and migration on women's resources and networks. An engaging, warm, and oftentimes humorous portrait of Muslim women's responses to development, Daughters of Tunis is an exciting new approach to ethnography: merging the historically disparate methods of both qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Holmes-Eber, Paula

Series Editor Preface -- Preface -- Notes on Language Use and Transliteration of Tunisian Arabic -- Introduction -- Men's and Women's Spaces in Tunis -- Tea and Visits: Weaving the Web of Exchange -- Marriage and Family: Miriam's Kin Exclusive Network -- Sherifa's Street: Migration, Residence Patterns, and Kin Networks -- Intimate Economies: Nura's Neighbor Network -- Women's Religious Celebrations: Status, Class, and Hannan's Friendship Pattern -- Conclusions -- The Survey -- Tables