Noha Fikry

Abstract

This thesis explores the particularly lively rooftops of Cairo through which interspecies intimacies unfold. On these rooftops, various animals (such as chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, goats, and rabbits) are raised to be later eaten and consumed for sustenance. Throughout the various thesis chapters, I try and expose the various patterned modalities, terms, and codes bringing these different species together in their sustained long-term relationships. I follow these interspecies relations as they narrate wonders of life-and-death, collaborations, various instantiations of home, social gift exchanges, marital rituals, and grieving patterns. These relations involve different tasks, requiring a very specific and complex gendered division of labor, further embedded in broader understandings of home, labor, subsistence, making a living, and growing as properly gendered beings. Rooftop recipes for relating slowly cook these human-nonhuman relations as uniquely embedded in a socio-ecological intricate awareness of surrounding environments of neighbors, families, but also of trees, waste, changing seasons, aging species, and growing parents.

Degree Name

MA in Sociology-Anthropology

Graduation Date

2-1-2019

Submission Date

September 2018

First Advisor

Khayyat, Munira

Committee Member 1

Aly, Ramy

Committee Member 2

Saad, Reem

Extent

221 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Rights

The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Approval has been obtained for this item

Comments

Fieldwork (specifically chapter six) was partly funded by HUSSLab's Global South Exchange Grant for a two-week trip to Cape Town.

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