The poetry of water
It was poetry that first brought Harvard anthropologist Steven Caton to Yemen in 1979, and it was war that brought him back in 2001. But it has been water that has kept him there since. Caton, the Khalid Bin Abdullah Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud Professor of Contemporary Arab Studies, first visited the nation’s tribal regions for his doctoral work. He lived for almost two years in a “sanctuary” town between tribes in what was then North Yemen, talking to tribal poets, attending ceremonies, and recording the verses he heard. His singular focus on poetry was shattered, however, by the abduction of two girls from one tribe by a young man from the sanctuary, a move that sparked a tribal war that involved players from across the country. After leaving Yemen in 1981, Caton completed his doctoral work at the University of Chicago and began teaching. He published three books, including 1990’s “Peaks of Yemen...