MIDDLE EASTERN WOMEN AND THE INVISIBLE ECONOMY.

Lobban, Richard A., Jr., ed. 1998. MIDDLE EASTERN WOMEN AND THE INVISIBLE ECONOMY. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. 302 pp. No price given (cloth).

Think of this stimulating and insightful volume as a contribution to the literature of exploration and discovery. The "Middle East" of the title is preponderantly African; it embraces Egypt (seven studies), Tunisia (three), the Sudan (two), Lebanon and the Yemen (one study each). The contribution set in the Yemen, moreover, examines a subordinate status group of real or putative African origin. The "invisible" economy begins where the governmentally documented one ends, a frontier whose portal into the officially unknown lies at no great distance from the doors of the relevant ministries. Those who rule suspect--correctly--that beyond the horizon of …