As Nomadism Ends by Avinoam Meir

Author:Avinoam Meir [Meir, Avinoam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Anthropology
ISBN: 9780429711121
Google: 0KqbDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-06-03T04:55:43+00:00

(Source: Meir and Ben-David 1989).

There is greater consistency in the trend to decline between both types of desired family size among the fellahi Bedouin than among the real Bedouin, although the magnitudes and rates are different. These major social groups differ also in the values from which their economically constrained desired family size begins to decline. Among the fellahi Bedouin it declines from a higher level. Nevertheless, both groups eventually reach a similar level of desired family size. It is here that a major similarity emerges between them. Both are transformed along the continuum from a similar large family size—desired when no constraints exist—to a similar far smaller desired family size under economic constraint.

An examination of actual versus economically constrained desired family size yields further insights. As expected, the desired family size is lower than the actual family size, particularly at more advanced phases. Furthermore, there seems to be a partially inverse relationship between both indicators, supporting the earlier notion about the emergence of surplus of children. This is particularly so among the fellahi Bedouin, who have begun to realize the consequences of the conflict between the presently declining economic value of children in condition of high fertility on the one hand, and the desire to maintain an improved personal standard of living on the other. That Bedouin society has indeed raised its standard of living has already been shown above (see Table 5.1; also Abu-Rabia, A. 1994c).

However, the explanation for the emergence of a surplus of children assumes that such improvement in living standards, in association with exposure to “Westernization,” has begun to encourage adoption of more modern values. These may affect the standard of living and quality of life more significantly than do traditional values. In order to substantiate this assumption, Bedouin respondents were asked to indicate in descending order of importance five indicators through which they would gain a reasonable quality of life. The replies were content-analyzed and then collapsed into two typical categories. The first category refers to traditional pastoral-nomadic indicators—such as pasture and water for livestock, residence in a traditional pastoral tent, freedom of movement and access to traditional grazing territories, nonintervention by government in their pastoral and tribal affairs, social acceptance, honor and dignity within the Bedouin community, and peaceful sociopolitical internal relationships. The second category—the modern one—refers to life quality indicators related to a modern materialistic standard of living, such as acquisition of modern education and professions, high income, and ownership of a home, an automobile, and home electric appliances and other related needs. Responses which initially specified one of the five original indicators as most important were assigned to the appropriate category. The percentage distribution of these categories within these responses is presented in Table 5.3 for each group along the continuum.

The data indicate clearly a strong infiltration of Western concepts of life quality along the continua of both the real and the fellahi Bedouin and a gradual decline in the dominance of traditional ones. While among the real Bedouin there is a higher rate of increase, the absolute levels among the fellahi Bedouin are higher.

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