The Nature of Bedouin Society & Women Little Power in the Public Realm

That is, subordination of individual to sort out concerns, interpenetrated with what could reasonably be c each(prenominal)ed fierce mutual loyalties, emerges as a principal determinant of daily sprightliness. According to Mackey, the tiny fortune of Bedouin population vis-a-vis the rest of the Arab world does not rationalise the fact that attributes of the Bedouin culture penetrate Arab culture as a whole. One aspect of this is the persistence of Bedouin attitudes toward life as such(prenominal)(prenominal) (24). Another and equally important aspect, as Mackey states, is that Arabs who begin been urbanize and otherwise modernized "both disdain the Bedouin and, at the alike time, harbor a romantic love for the nomadic life and the simplicity, dignity, and virtue of the desert" (21).

The presumed virtues and loyalties implied by the harsh realities desert subsistence living, however, deduce with a cost. As Mackey notes, "The price the individual had to pay for this aegis was strict conformity to the family's values and code of air. A Bedouin internalized these to the cessation that he ceased to identify himself emotionally as an individual" (Mackey 24). To assemble it another way, the Bedouin have historically been tied to a familial social social system that is also hierarchical and authoritarian. In a tribe, there can be only one chief. Mackey cites " troth social controls . . . [that] began with requital and ended with hospitality" (25). No less(prenominal) significant to Arab society in general and Bedouin society in particular

is the complex but vital issue of honor, which is connected to the issue of obligation to family and tribe. Mackey says that honor "is the operate force of the Arab psyche . . . is self-respect that comes not so ofttimes from the behavior of the individual but from the approval that he draws from his peers" (26). This translates into much than a wish for respect from others and an impulse toward acquiring and maintaining such respect at all costs and in all ways. Hence the sharply felt threats to honor and the imperative of vengeance for such threats expressed, implied, or perhaps even imagined.

The position of women in this whole scheme can readily be inferred in general terms, as part and parcel of tradition, fashion, and habit.

Patrilineality, hierarchy, and the enforcement of specific behavior patterns speak to male authority over social structure as a matter of logic and historical custom; why should Arabs be any different? To the degree the sustentation and enforcement of the basic social structure can be considered a human beings function, then, it follows that women would exercise little power in the public realm. Indeed, compared to the basic activities of Bedouin men, the basic activities of women can be seen as really much cut off from outside the tribe. Men have historically attended to traditional Bedouin activities such as sheep herding and shearing, temporary hookup it falls to women to attend to such domestic details as cooking and midwifery. Abu-Lughod also describes the Bedouin practice of "rubbishing," the name given to activities that originated in World War II, when Bedouin men would sort through get rid of war materiel, particularly after battles, for items that could either be sell at market or adapted for social function in camp. Bedouin men would take everything from scrap metal to weapons to market. Items suitable for use in camp, meanwhile, would be turned over to the women. Abu-Lughod cites the use of slide silk by women for their clothing and for tent repair (A
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