Rosanna Sirignano: Mother and child in Palestine
Rosanna Sirignano
Mother and child in Palestine:
the artas material in Hilma Granqvist nachlass at the Palestine exploration fund
Estratto da Studi Interculturali n. 3 del 2013
Most part of the following article an extract from my BA and MA research work about the renowned anthropologist Hilma Granqvist’s contribution to our knowledge of Palestinian Arabic.
Hilma Granqvist died in 1972 in Helsinki. Shortly after her death the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), with the valuable help of Shelagh Weir, acquired all the material resulting from Granqvist’s fieldwork in Palestine.
Granqvist’s research represents an important contribution to ethno-anthropological studies of Palestine, because of the richness of the content and the detailed description of women’s lives, with particular attention to their linguistic practices. Hilma Granqvist learned Palestinian Arabic because she was aware of the importance of speaking the language of the culture she was researching. As anthropologist the worldview of each human being is transmitted through his language, and so attention to linguistic practices allows us to develop a better understanding of the complexity of a given social system.
