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Andrea Rugh Reading from Middle East Memoir
Thursday October 22nd at 7 PM and again on Friday October 23rd at 10 AM
Seating is limited. "Meet the author" and light refreshments follow.
Order the book.
Anthropologist Andrea Rugh will read vignettes from her new book "Simple Gestures: A Cultural Journey Into the Middle East" Doug Rugh created the cover illustration for the book. As a child growing up in the Middle East, Doug Rugh had experiences that helped inspire his art. His mother, Andrea, worked there for decades as a professional anthropologist and has written several books on the region. Now she has written a personal account of her experiences over 40 years in 8 countries of the Middle East as she attempted to develop an understanding of the local people and culture. It shows the small incidents that make up a cultural journey--the problems of communication, the compromises outsiders make to get along, and the practices that make each culture unique. Even though these are personal one-of-a- kind examples, they provide insights into both Middle Eastern and Western cultures. Ever since America’s involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, it has become clear how little most Americans know about the culture of the region. Rugh begins to fill the gap with stories of everyday events and people she met while living and working in the region. She provides insights into what makes the two cultures different. In her three roles as mother, diplomat’s wife, and anthropologist she was able to meet and know a much broader range of people than the usual outsider. Her experiences include, among others, 5 years studying Muslim-Christian relations in a poor community of Cairo, living with a rural family in Syria, getting to know the royal wives of rulers in the Emirates of the Gulf, and working on education projects in Pakistan and Afghanistan, during and after the Taliban period.
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