Bedouin

Not to be confused with Bédoins or Bedoun.

Bedouin

A Bedouin family in Oman
Total population
?
Regions with significant populations
Saudi Arabia 1,000,000 Jordan 910,000 Libya 530,000 Egypt- mainly in Sinai 380,000 (2007) Israel 170,000 (1999) Syria Tunisia Algeria Morocco Western Sahara Mauritania Sudan Iraq Kuwait UAE Bahrain Qatar Oman Yemen
Languages
Arabic dialects:  Najdi • Hassānīya • Bedawi
Religion
majority adhere to Sunni Islam; small numbers adhere to Shia Islam and other religions
Related ethnic groups
Arabs

The Bedouin ( /ˈbɛdʉ.ɪn/; from the Arabic badawī بَدَوِي, pl. badw بَدْو or badawiyyūn بَدَوِيُّون) are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arabian genetic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ʿašāʾir (عَشَائِر)..

Etymology

The term "Bedouin" derives from a plural form of the Arabic word badawī, as it is pronounced in colloquial dialects. The Arabic term badawī derives from the word bādiyah (بَادِية), which means semiarid desert (as opposed to ṣaḥrāʾ صَحْرَاء, which means very arid desert). The term "Bedouin" therefore means, "those in bādiyah" or "those in the desert".

History

Starting in the late nineteenth century, many Bedouin under British rule began to transit to a seminomadic life. In the 1950s and 1960s, large numbers of Bedouin throughout Midwest Asia started to leave the traditional, nomadic life to settle in the cities of Midwest Asia, especially as hot ranges have shrunk and populations have grown. For example, in Syria the Bedouin way of life effectively ended during a severe drought from 1958 to 1961, which forced many Bedouin to relent herding for standard jobs. Similarly, governmental policies in Egypt and Israel, oil production in the Persian Gulf, as well as a desire for improved standards of living, effectively led most Bedouin to become settled citizens of various nations, rather than stateless nomadic herders. Governmental policies pressing the Bedouin have in some cases been executed in an attempt to provide service (schools, health-care, law enforcement and so on—see Chatty 1986 for examples), but in others have been based on the desire to seize land traditionally roved and controlled by the Bedouin. In recent years, the Bedouin have adopted the pastime of raising and breeding white doves.

Society

A widely quoted Bedouin saying is "I against my brother, my brothers and I against my cousins, then my cousins and I against strangers". This saying signifies a hierarchy of loyalties based on proximity of kinship that runs from the nuclear family through the lineage, the tribe, and even, in principle at least, to an entire genetic or linguistic group (which is perceived to have a kinship basis). Disputes are settled, interests are pursued, and justice and order are maintained by means of this frame, according to an ethic of self-help and collective responsibility (Andersen 14). The individual family unit (known as a tent or bayt) typically consisted of three or four adults (a married couple plus siblings or parents) and any number of children.

When resources were plentiful, several tents would travel together as a goum. These groups were sometimes linked by patriarchal lineage, but were just as likely linked by marriage (new wives were especially likely to have close male relatives join them), acquaintance or even no clearly defined relation but a simple shared membership in the tribe.

The next scale of interaction within groups was the ibn ʿamm (cousin, or literally "son of an uncle") or descent group, commonly of three to five generations. These were often linked to goums, but where a goum would generally consist of people all with the same herd type, descent groups were frequently split up over several economic activities, thus allowing a degree of 'risk management'; should one group of members of a descent group suffer economically, the other members of the descent group would be able to support them. Whilst the phrase "descent group" suggests purely a lineage-based arrangement, in reality these groups were fluid and adapted their genealogies to take in new members.

A Bedouine boy from Saudi arabia

The largest scale of tribal interactions is the tribe as a whole, led by a Sheikh (Arabic: شيخ‎ šayḫ, literally, "elder"). The tribe often claims descent from one common ancestor—as mentioned above. This appears patrimonial but in reality new groups could have genealogies invented to tie them in to this ancestor. The tribal level is the level that mediated between the Bedouin and the outside governments and organizations.

Bedouin traditionally had strong honor codes, and traditional systems of justice dispensation in Bedouin society typically revolved around such codes. The bisha'a, or ordeal by fire, is a well-known Bedouin practice of lie detection. See also: Honor codes of the Bedouin, Bedouin systems of justice

Bedouin girl

See also

• Bedouin music
• Ardha
• Ghinnawa

Further reading

• Brous, Devorah. "The 'Uprooting:' Education Void of Indigenous 'Location-Specific' Knowledge, Among Negev Bedouin Arabs in Southern Israel;" International Perspectives on Indigenous Education. (Ben Gurion University 2004)
• Chatty, D Mobile Pastoralists 1996. Broad introduction to the topic, specific focus on women's issues.
• Chatty, Dawn. From Camel to Truck. The Bedouin in the Modern World. New York: Vantage Press. 1986
• Cole, Donald P. "Where have the Bedouin gone?". Anthropological Quarterly. Washington: Spring 2003.Vol.76, Iss. 2; pg. 235
• Falah, Ghazi. “Israeli State Policy Towards Bedouin Sedentarization in the Negev,” Journal of Palestine Studies, 1989 Vol. XVIII, No. 2, pp. 71–91
• Falah, Ghazi. “The Spatial Pattern of Bedouin Sedentarization in Israel,” GeoJournal, 1985 Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 361–368.
• Gardner, Andrew. The Political Ecology of Bedouin Nomadism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In Political Ecology Across Spaces, Scales and Social Groups, Lisa Gezon and Susan Paulson, eds. Rutgers: Rutgers University Press.
• Gardner, Andrew. The New Calculus of Bedouin Pastoral Nomadism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Human Organization 62 (3): 267-276.
• Gardner, Andrew and Timothy Finan. Navigating Modernization: Bedouin Pastoralism and Climate Information in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies 4 (Spring): 59-72.
• Gardner, Ann. "At Home in South Sinai." Nomadic Peoples 2000.Vol.4,Iss. 2; pp. 48–67. Detailed account of Bedouin women.
• Jarvis, Claude Scudamore. Yesterday and To-day in Sinai. Edinburgh/London: W. Blackwood & Sons; Three Deserts. London: John Murray, 1936; Desert and Delta. London: John Murray, 1938. Sympathetic accounts by a colonial administrator in Sinai.
• Lancaster, William. The Rwala Bedouin Today 1981 (Second Edition 1997). Detailed examination of social structures.
• S. Leder/B. Streck (ed.): Shifts and Drifts in Nomad-Sedentary Relations. Nomaden und Sesshafte 2 (Wiesbaden 2005)
• Lithwick, Harvey. "An Urban Development Strategy for the Negev’s Bedouin Community;" Center for Bedouin Studies and Development and Negev Center for Regional Development, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, August 2000
• Mohsen, Safia K. The quest for order among Awlad Ali of the Western Desert of Egypt.
• Thesiger, Wilfred (1959). Arabian Sands. ISBN 0-14-009514-4 (Penguin paperback). British adventurer lives as and with the Bedu of the Empty Quarter for 5 years