ABSTRACT
Nura's social and visiting ties are typical of the network type authors have categorized as the "neighbor network." Like both the "kin exclusive network" and the "friendship pattern," neighbor networks are typically dominated by kin, with a mean number of twelve kin-related households in the network. In fact, most of the women lived in a very precarious financial situation. Two women, Mounia and Douzha, were widows with young children. The importance of kinship like support and intimacy with their neighbors for women with neighbor networks is also echoed in an interview with Douzha, a twenty-seven-year-old widow. The Belhedi family, who had become author adopted family while people lived in Tunisia, lived on a quiet, narrow side street in the middle-class suburb of Megrine. Although Tunisian women visit for many occasions, ranging from the weekly Sunday visit to religious holidays and weddings, it is the simple, informal daily drop-in that forms the backbone of most women's day-today social life.
