The Nomadic Bedouin

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The Nomadic Bedouin

• A mobile culture for a people on the move.

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A quick outline

• Introduction Who in the world are Bedouins?!?!
• Nomadic pastoralism? Whats that?
• Bedouin tribal organization.
• Bedouin material culture.
• Cultural habits.
• The history of Bedouin peoples.
• Campsite location.
• The reality of Bedouin life today.
• Conclusions.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 Baluchis,
  the Luris, the Kurds, and the Turks.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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,
  ibn, 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.

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Bedouin tribal organization Kinship System

• The Nuclear family has kinship terms like ours.
• The mothers brother and mothers sister and
  their spouses have different titles from the
  fathers brother and sister and their spouses.
• The mothers parents have different titles than
  the fathers parents.

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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.

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Bedouin tribal organization Marriage and
Inheritance

• A bridewealth is paid to the girls family, and
  they provide a small dowry in return.
• The newlyweds live a year with the girls family
  before moving permanently to the boys family.
• First cousin marriages are common.
• Divorce by the man or woman is allowed and
  common.
• A man may have multiple wives.

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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.

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Cultural habits.

• The introduction.
• The coffee ceremony.
• News sharing.
• The Mansef.
• Scouting behavior.

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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 (87,000
  YBP).
• Nomads were feared by sedentary people because
  they raided for agricultural products and other
  trade goods.

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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.

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Campsite location.
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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.

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Conclusions.

• Years afterwards it is still possible to
  recognize an old camping place, marh al-arab.
  The fireplace hollowed out in the mens
  compartment the small piles of clay and ashes
  the three scorched stones by the fireplace of the
  womens 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

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