The Bedouin Flexible Pastoralism

Work, Life, and Value: Economic Anthropology ANTH 2301 The Bedouin: Flexible Pastoralism Approximately three million Arab people, commonly referred to as the Bedouin, reside in the arid grasslands of northern Africa and Arabia. The main source of income for Bedouin peoples before to the 20th century was the herding of cattle, sheep, goats, and camels. Even though they frequently also work as wage labourers or grow crops, many still do. Of the Bedouin who remain committed to herding, the majority focus on one or two herd animals that are especially well-adapted to the local climate and pastures. Sheep and goats are preferred in the regions around Jordan, Syria, and Iraq, whereas Bedouin populations in southern Arabia and Sudan raise cattle. Bedouin communities herd camels, which are resilient animals that require little water, in very arid locations like the Arabian and Saharan Deserts. Not only are camels prized for their meat and milk, but they are also treasured for transportation. Even though it is a highly valued custom, Bedouin are less and less engaged in camel herding. Bedouin add feed to their camels' diets, and as feed prices rise, many have been compelled to sell their animals. The Bedouin have moved away from camels since the 1960s; occasionally, they still use camels to deliver supplies to their herds in dry areas. Traditionally, Bedouin pastoralists have resided in tiny camps that are relocated as often as necessary—even every few days—to hunt new pastures for their herds. Nomadism is the term for this type of herding. Every camp has many tents, each of which houses a large family. A married couple with their kids and one or two of the husband's brothers may typically live in a tent. Sons get married and set up their own tents, thus families may reside in many tents inside the camp. A camp may contain, for example, seventy to one hundred individuals, families of many brothers, with each tent sheltering the household of a brother, a son, or an elder. During the summer, the camp's families frequently relocate together, and in the winter, they join forces with other groups in bigger camps. Typically, a camp has three to fifteen tents. Other Bedouin have typically moved their herds between two permanent communities, one for the summer and one for the winter, rather than allowing them to roam freely. Transhumance is the term used to describe this pastoralist style. Small children and the elderly sometimes live in year-round camps in communities that still practise this kind of sustenance, receiving government health care and education. Some Bedouin integrate smallscale cultivation with herding by means of transhumance. Some Bedouin people in Egypt, for example, sow barley in the autumn and then travel into the desert with their herds, leaving a few people behind to take care of the crops. The mobile group comes back in the summer to harvest the crops, and they all spend the summer together. In many permanent sites, tents have given way to stone buildings. Both buildings and tents have two or three rooms on a rectangular shape. There's a women's section with a kitchen and pantry. There's a designated space where males hang out with visitors and family. Occasionally, a third section is used to care for young or ill animals. Pastoralists divide labour based on a sexual division of labour, much like gatherer-hunters do. For the Bedouin, the kinds of animals that the tribe herds define that distinction. Men tend to bigger animals, such cattle and camels, in households where both big and small animals are kept. Sheep and goats are among the smaller animals that women milk, feed, and herd. However, when a group is merely herding tiny animals, women often handle feeding and milking the animals, and males typically handle herding them. Women spin the wool from the sheep they keep into yarn, which is then woven into the strips required to create tents.Pastoralists place a high importance on private property, particularly in the shape of their herds, in contrast to foragers. The size of a family's herds is a good indicator of their wealth. Herd animals are passed down from dads to sons and daughters in the Bedouin culture, with boys receiving more than daughters. If a woman inherits camels, she often gives them to her brother or cousin because women are not allowed to handle such animals. Every piece of property is shared by family members. Desertdwelling Bedouin have a deep understanding of their harsh surroundings. They can describe a wide variety of sand types and analyse dune formations and other environmental changes because to their extensive vocabulary (Eastep). Men frequently take lengthy journeys into the desert in search of rabbits to shoot or to scout out suitable grazing areas. Arabian Bedouin are skilled trackers; they can determine a camel's age, physical state, the time the trace was made, and the load the animal was carrying by examining its tracks.