Minaret building and apprenticeship in Yemen

Trevor H. J. Marchand is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at SOAS, University of London, and recipient of the Royal Anthropological Institute's Rivers Memorial Medal. He studied architecture (McGill University), received a PhD in anthropology (SOAS), and qualified as a fine woodworker at London's Building Crafts College (City & Guilds).

Through a combination of rich architectural and ethnographic description, this study of apprenticeship and human spatial cognition provides a fascinating insight into the daily lives and activities of a professional class of craftsmen, and investigates the unique teaching-learning processes that distinguish their trade and mould both their professional and social characters.