Customary strangers : new perspectives on peripatetic peoples in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia / edited by Joseph C. Berland and Aparna Rao.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Unveiling the Stranger: A New Look at Peripatetic Peoples / Joseph C. Berland and Aparna Rao -- "Once upon a Time": Reconciling the Stranger / Michael J. Casimir -- Pt. I. The Middle East -- Roving Traders among the Bedouin of South Sinai / Emanuel Marx -- Biography and Identity in Damascus: A Syrian Nawar Chief / Frank Meyer -- Pt. II. Africa -- Afflictions of the Stomach: Smith as "Stranger" among the Tuareg / Susan Rasmussen -- "They Work to Eat and They Eat to Work": M'allemin Craftsmen, Classification, and Discourse among the Bidan Nobility of Mauritania / Mariella Villasante Cervello -- Strangers in Their Own Land: Social Resources and Domestic Fluidity of the Peripatetic Karretjie People of the South African Karoo / Michael De Jongh -- Local Strangers: The Nile Valley Gypsies in the Ethnic Mosaic of Sudan / Bernhard Streck -- Hunters, Foragers, and Singing Smiths: The Metamorphoses of Peripatetic Peoples in Africa / Michael Bollig -- Pt. III. Asia -- Why Bulbuls Bark: Conflict, Continuity, and Identity among Professional Strangers / Joseph C. Berland -- Professional Strangers in Urban Pakistan: A Note on Peripatetic Specialists / Jurgen Wasim Frembgen -- Strangers and Liminal Beings: Some Thoughts on Peripatetics, Insiders, and Outsiders in Southwest Asia / Aparna Rao -- Enduring Strangers: Mughat, Lyuli, and Other Peripatetics in the Social Fabric of Central Asia / Shirin Akiner -- The Orang Suku Laut: Owners of or Strangers in the Riau Archipelago of Indonesia? / Cynthia Chou.