The Nomadic Bedouin

1. The Nomadic Bedouin A mobile culture for a people on the move.

2. A quick outline • Introduction: Who in the world are Bedouins?!?! • Nomadic pastoralism? What’s that? • Bedouin tribal organization. • Bedouin material culture. • Cultural habits. • The history of Bedouin peoples. • Campsite location. • The reality of Bedouin life today. • Conclusions.

3. Introduction: What does the word “Bedouin” mean? • The word “Bedouin” roughly means “those who wander”. • Its root is “Bedu” which means “Wanderer” or “Nomad”. • Bedouin people generally do not refer to themselves as “Bedouin”, they are called that by more settled people.

4. Introduction: What does the word “Bedouin” mean? • “Bedouin” people refer to themselves as “Arabs”. • “Arab” is simply the name of their culture. • Bedouin refer to settled “Arabs” as “Fellahin”, which means “farmers”.

5. Introduction: How would I know a person was Bedouin? • Bedouins are typically nomadic pastoralists who herd camels and/or goats and/or sheep, but not all nomadic pastoralists who herd these animals are Bedouin. • Bedouin differ from other pastoral groups by adhering to the same cultural, political, and linguistic standards.

6. Introduction: How would I know a person was Bedouin? • Bedouin live in the arid areas of the Near East and North Africa from as far west as Morocco east to Iran, and from as far south as Sudan and Yemen north to Syria. • Other pastoral groups of the area include the Tuareg, the Magrhebs, the Nuer, the Baluchi’s, the Luri’s, the Kurds, and the Turks.

8. Introduction: How would I know a person was Bedouin? • All Bedouin people speak a dialect of Arabic. • Bedouin herd camels, goats, and sheep, and a large part of their material and social culture is related to the needs of these animals.

9. So what does “nomadic pastoralism” mean? • it is a generalized food-producing strategy. • It relies on the management of herd animals for their primary products of meat and skin, and for their secondary products such as wool or hair, milk, blood, dung, traction, and transport • There is daily local movement and seasonal migration of herd animals.

10. So what does “nomadic pastoralism” mean? • The entire household moves with the seasonal migrations. • While the products of the herd animals are the most important resources, use of other resources is not excluded. • There are varying degrees of nomadism.

11. Bedouin tribal organization. • Smallest level of organization is the “household” level or “Al-Bayt”. This is at least one woman, and those who live in her tent, but is named after the closest male relative. • Next higher is the “extended household” or “Lineage”. All closely related households, and named after the oldest male relative.

12. Bedouin tribal organization. • The “clan” is the next highest group. All related lineages, named after the oldest male common ancestor that can be recalled. • The highest level is the “tribe”. All lineages descended from the same patriarch, and generally named after that patriarch. This patriarch is someone who lived long enough ago to be in the realm of myth.

15. Bedouin tribal organization: Naming system • Names are given with the prefix of the five most recent male ancestors. • These ancestors are denoted by the words “bin”, “ib’n”, or “Al”. All of which basically mean “descended from”. • This makes it easier for others to place individuals within a genealogy and to recognize their closeness of relation.

16. Bedouin tribal organization: Kinship System • The Nuclear family has kinship terms like ours. • The mother’s brother and mother’s sister and their spouses have different titles from the father’s brother and sister and their spouses. • The mother’s parents have different titles than the father’s parents.

17. Bedouin tribal organization: Marriage and Inheritance • They are patrilineal. Property, animals, wells, and grazing rights get passed to the oldest male. • Tents are made, maintained, and owned by females during their lives, but are passed to the oldest son (and his wife) after death.

18. Bedouin tribal organization: Marriage and Inheritance • A bridewealth is paid to the girl’s family, and they provide a small dowry in return. • The newlyweds live a year with the girl’s family before moving permanently to the boy’s family. • First cousin marriages are common. • Divorce by the man or woman is allowed and common. • A man may have multiple wives.

19. Bedouin material culture. • The black tent is the quintessential material possession of Bedouin. • Other items are related to herding activities, yogurt and cheese making, bread making, and coffee preparation. • Skin bags, water sacks, and saddle bags • Daggers, Kafia (Hatta), Jellaba, Veils, and other clothing. • Camel saddles.

20. Cultural habits. • The introduction. • The coffee ceremony. • News sharing. • The Mansef. • Scouting behavior.

21. The history of Bedouin peoples • Goat and sheep domesticated ~10,000 YBP. • Donkeys, horses ~6,000 YBP, Camels 4000 YBP. • Pastoral nomadism probably starts sometime between the two in the Late Neolithic (~8—7,000 YBP). • Nomads were feared by sedentary people because they raided for agricultural products and other trade goods.

22. The history of Bedouin peoples • They also traded with the sedentary peoples, and led caravan routes across the deserts. • They provided the mobile messengers and warriors that hastened the spread of Islam in the 7th century A.D.

23. Campsite location.

26. The reality of Bedouin life today. • Forced sedentarization by modern states. • Many have adopted agriculture, but on very marginal land. • The Negev Bedouin are kept on a “reservation” in Isreal. • Very few are still purely nomadic, some are still semi-nomadic, but more than half are almost fully sedentary.

27. Conclusions. • “Years afterwards it is still possible to recognize an old camping place, marh al-‘arab. The fireplace hollowed out in the men’s compartment; the small piles of clay and ashes; the three scorched stones by the fireplace of the women’s compartment; the piles of stones or fuel, upon which the beds were laid; …all this awakens memories in the mind of the solitary traveler.” —Alois Musil, 1928, p. 78