Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert

Katerina Marinaki

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19

| Peer-Reviewed

Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert

Katerina Marinaki

Published in Social Sciences (Volume 10, Issue 3)

Received: 28 May 2021 Accepted: 16 June 2021 Published: 22 June 2021

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

This article presents an ethnographic study based on the 22 month research conducted with the ZalabiehBedouins of Wadi Rum (Jordan); herein focuses on the conceptualization of the identity of the malepopulation in multidimentional ways. In the first placediscusses the concept of “Bedouinism” as constructed through interactions with the state both by consent and by rupture; and then analyzes “manhood” as self-identification as understood via interactions with the outside “other.” Describes how the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum desert, selected for their integrity, loyalty and trustworthy character, manned the army and the police, thereby maintaining and strengthening state institutions. It also shows, paradoxically, how the confidence to do so gives them the courage and audacity to oppose the State and its bureaucrats around certain issues. In addition discusses how manhood is related to Bedouinism and which cultural practices highlight manhood. Camel races and tourism--essential activities of these people-- are examined as hegemonic power parameters that display “us” and construct “otherness.” Presents a comparative analysis of camel races with “Balinese cockfights” as described and interpreted by Clifford Geertz in order to highlight certain important elements of Zalabieh Bedouin culture via cross-cultural comparison. Examines the dimensions of “space” and “place”--the desert as a physical environment—in the construction of the discrete Bedouin identity and argues that the dynamics of localityare encapsulated in the integration of the biological, the environmental, and the social as existential spaces. Within this overarching framework analyzes the relationships among male Zalabieh Bedouins within their vast desert territory to capture their dual identities as men of the desert and servants of the government, which exist in a state calledbalanced opposition.

Published in	Social Sciences (Volume 10, Issue 3)
DOI	10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19
Page(s)	140-149
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Bedouin, Identity, Manhood, Place, Power Relations, Middle East, Jordan

References

[1]	Agnew, John. (2011). Space and Place in Agnew J & Livingstone (eds). Handbook of Geographical Knowledge, 316-330 London, Sage.
[2]	Al Khayat S. (1990). Honor and Shame. Women in Modern Iraq. London. Saqi Books.
[3]	Alshawi, AHadi& Gardner, A. (2013). Tribalism, Identity and Citizenship in Contemporary Qatar. Anthropology of the Middle East 8 (2): 46-59.
[4]	Axelrod, Lawrence. (1978). The Demise of Fidaiyyun in Tribesmen inUniform 1970-71. The Muslim World 68 (1): 25-45.
[5]	Babb, Florence. (2012). Theorizing Gender Race and Cultural Tourism in Latin America. Latin American perspectives 39 (6): 36-50.
[6]	Borneman, John. (1992). State, Territory, and Identity Formation in the Postwar Berlins, 1945-1989 Space, Identity and the Politics of Difference. Cultural Anthropology 7 (1): 45-62.
[7]	Bourdieu, Pierre. (2007). Outline of a Theory of Practice, (transl.) R. Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[8]	Boyer, P. (1999). Human cognition and cultural evolution. In Moore, H. L (ed) Anthropological theory today, 206-33. Cambridge: Polity.
[9]	Browning, A. Nancy. (2013). “I am a Bedu”: The Changing Bedouin in a Changing World. Thesis on MA of Anthropology. Univ. of Arkansas.
[10]	Carrigan, T. Connell, B. and Lee, J. (1985). Toward a new sociology of masculinity. Theory and Society, 14 (5): 551-604.
[11]	DiSalle, Robert. (2002). Newton’s philosophical analysis of space and time in Cohen B & Smith G. E (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Newton pp: 33-56 Cambridge. Cambridge Univ. Press.
[12]	Foucault, Michel. (1982). The Subject and Power. Critical Inquiry 8 (4): 777-795.
[13]	Geertz, Clifford. (1993). The Interpretations of Cultures. London.
[14]	Ghazi bin Muhammad. (1999). The Tribes of Jordan.
[15]	Gluckman, Max. (1963). Gossip and Scandal. Current Anthropology 4 (3): 307-316.
[16]	Golubovic, Zagorka. (2011). An Anthropological Conceptualisation of Identity. Synthesis Philosophica 51 (1): 25-43.
[17]	Goffman, Erving. (1959). The presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
[18]	Goffman, Erving. (1963). Behavior in Public Places. New York, NY: Free Press.
[19]	Gutman, Matthew. (1997). Trafficking in Men: The Anthropology of Masculinity. Annual Review of Anthropology, 26: 385-409.
[20]	Herzog, Chaim and Gazit, Shlomo. (2004). The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East. New York. Vintage Books.
[21]	Ingold, Tim. (2001). From the transmission of representations to the education of attention. In Whitehouse, H (ed) The debated mind: evolutionary psychology versus ethnography, 113-53. Oxford: Berg.
[22]	Jacoby, Sally and Ochs, Elinor. (1995). Co-Construction: An Introduction. Research on Language and Social Interaction 28 (3): 171-183.
[23]	Jureidini, Paul A. and McLaurin, R. O. (1984). Jordan. The Impact of Social Change on the Role of the Tribes. N. Y The Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
[24]	Kimmel, M. (1994). «Masculinity as Homophobia. Fear, Shame and silencein the construction of Gender Identity», in Kaufman, M. and Brod, H. (eds), Theorizing Masculinities, 119-142, ThousandOaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
[25]	Kaufman, M. (1999). Men, Feminism and Men’s Contradictory Experiencesof Power, in Kuypers, J. (ed.), Men and Power, 59-83 Halifax, Femwood Books.
[26]	Layne, L. Linda. (1987). “Tribalism”. National Representations of Tribal Life in Jordan. Urban Anthropology 16 (2): 183-203.
[27]	Leder, S. (2005). Nomadic and sedentary peoples - A misleading dichotomy? The Bedouin and Bedouinism in the Arab past. In S. Leder (Ed.), Shifts and drifts in nomad-sedentary relations (pp. 401–419). Wiesbaden: L. Reicher.
[28]	Mares, R. (2017). The language of the Bedouins: A social-ethnic Arab structure. Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice, 9 (2), 440–445.
[29]	Marinaki, Katerina. 2014. “The Children of Wadi Rum. Gender Representations and Socializing Practices” (in Greek). Ph.D Dissertation, Department Social Anthropology. Balkan, Slavic and Anatolian Studies University of Macedonia, Greece.
[30]	Massad, Joseph. (2001). Colonial Effects. The Making of National Identityof Jordan. New York.
[31]	Matore, Georges. (1962). L’EspaceHumain. Paris. La Columbe.
[32]	Ouzgane, Lamoucine (ed). (2006) IslamicMasculinities. Zed BooksLondon, New York.
[33]	Pollack, Kenneth. (2002). Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness. Univ. of Nebraska Press.
[34]	Relph, E. (1976). PlaceandPlacelessness. London.
[35]	Smith, Gavin. (1999). Confronting the Present. Towards a Politically Engaged Anthropology. Berg Publishers.
[36]	Toren, Christina. (1993). Making History: The Significance of Childhood Cognition for a Comparative Anthropology of Mind. Man (N.S) 28: 461-478.
[37]	Turner, Victor. (1982). From Ritual to Theatre. New York. PAJ.
[38]	Vorkinn, M and Riese, H. (2001). Environmental Concern in a Local Context: The Significance of Place Attachment. Environment and Behaviour 33 (2): 249-263.
[39]	Weishut DJN. (2021). Intercultural friendship: The case of a Palestinian Bedouin and a Dutch Israeli Jew. Brill.
[40]	Wilson, Tamar Diana and Ypeij, Annelou. (2012). Tourism gender and ethnicity. Latin American Perspectives 39 (6): 5-16.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Katerina Marinaki. (2021). Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert. Social Sciences, 10(3), 140-149. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Katerina Marinaki. Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert. Soc. Sci. 2021, 10(3), 140-149. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Katerina Marinaki. Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert. Soc Sci. 2021;10(3):140-149. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19,
  author = {Katerina Marinaki},
  title = {Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert},
  journal = {Social Sciences},
  volume = {10},
  number = {3},
  pages = {140-149},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ss.20211003.19},
  abstract = {This article presents an ethnographic study based on the 22 month research conducted with the ZalabiehBedouins of Wadi Rum (Jordan); herein focuses on the conceptualization of the identity of the malepopulation in multidimentional ways. In the first placediscusses the concept of “Bedouinism” as constructed through interactions with the state both by consent and by rupture; and then analyzes “manhood” as self-identification as understood via interactions with the outside “other.” Describes how the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum desert, selected for their integrity, loyalty and trustworthy character, manned the army and the police, thereby maintaining and strengthening state institutions. It also shows, paradoxically, how the confidence to do so gives them the courage and audacity to oppose the State and its bureaucrats around certain issues. In addition discusses how manhood is related to Bedouinism and which cultural practices highlight manhood. Camel races and tourism--essential activities of these people-- are examined as hegemonic power parameters that display “us” and construct “otherness.” Presents a comparative analysis of camel races with “Balinese cockfights” as described and interpreted by Clifford Geertz in order to highlight certain important elements of Zalabieh Bedouin culture via cross-cultural comparison. Examines the dimensions of “space” and “place”--the desert as a physical environment—in the construction of the discrete Bedouin identity and argues that the dynamics of localityare encapsulated in the integration of the biological, the environmental, and the social as existential spaces. Within this overarching framework analyzes the relationships among male Zalabieh Bedouins within their vast desert territory to capture their dual identities as men of the desert and servants of the government, which exist in a state calledbalanced opposition.},
 year = {2021}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert
AU  - Katerina Marinaki
Y1  - 2021/06/22
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19
DO  - 10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19
T2  - Social Sciences
JF  - Social Sciences
JO  - Social Sciences
SP  - 140
EP  - 149
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2326-988X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19
AB  - This article presents an ethnographic study based on the 22 month research conducted with the ZalabiehBedouins of Wadi Rum (Jordan); herein focuses on the conceptualization of the identity of the malepopulation in multidimentional ways. In the first placediscusses the concept of “Bedouinism” as constructed through interactions with the state both by consent and by rupture; and then analyzes “manhood” as self-identification as understood via interactions with the outside “other.” Describes how the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum desert, selected for their integrity, loyalty and trustworthy character, manned the army and the police, thereby maintaining and strengthening state institutions. It also shows, paradoxically, how the confidence to do so gives them the courage and audacity to oppose the State and its bureaucrats around certain issues. In addition discusses how manhood is related to Bedouinism and which cultural practices highlight manhood. Camel races and tourism--essential activities of these people-- are examined as hegemonic power parameters that display “us” and construct “otherness.” Presents a comparative analysis of camel races with “Balinese cockfights” as described and interpreted by Clifford Geertz in order to highlight certain important elements of Zalabieh Bedouin culture via cross-cultural comparison. Examines the dimensions of “space” and “place”--the desert as a physical environment—in the construction of the discrete Bedouin identity and argues that the dynamics of localityare encapsulated in the integration of the biological, the environmental, and the social as existential spaces. Within this overarching framework analyzes the relationships among male Zalabieh Bedouins within their vast desert territory to capture their dual identities as men of the desert and servants of the government, which exist in a state calledbalanced opposition.
VL  - 10
IS  - 3
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Katerina Marinaki

Department of Balkan, Slavic & Oriental Studies, School of Economic and Regional Studies, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Katerina Marinaki. (2021). Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert. Social Sciences, 10(3), 140-149. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Katerina Marinaki. Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert. Soc. Sci. 2021, 10(3), 140-149. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Katerina Marinaki. Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert. Soc Sci. 2021;10(3):140-149. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19,
  author = {Katerina Marinaki},
  title = {Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert},
  journal = {Social Sciences},
  volume = {10},
  number = {3},
  pages = {140-149},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ss.20211003.19},
  abstract = {This article presents an ethnographic study based on the 22 month research conducted with the ZalabiehBedouins of Wadi Rum (Jordan); herein focuses on the conceptualization of the identity of the malepopulation in multidimentional ways. In the first placediscusses the concept of “Bedouinism” as constructed through interactions with the state both by consent and by rupture; and then analyzes “manhood” as self-identification as understood via interactions with the outside “other.” Describes how the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum desert, selected for their integrity, loyalty and trustworthy character, manned the army and the police, thereby maintaining and strengthening state institutions. It also shows, paradoxically, how the confidence to do so gives them the courage and audacity to oppose the State and its bureaucrats around certain issues. In addition discusses how manhood is related to Bedouinism and which cultural practices highlight manhood. Camel races and tourism--essential activities of these people-- are examined as hegemonic power parameters that display “us” and construct “otherness.” Presents a comparative analysis of camel races with “Balinese cockfights” as described and interpreted by Clifford Geertz in order to highlight certain important elements of Zalabieh Bedouin culture via cross-cultural comparison. Examines the dimensions of “space” and “place”--the desert as a physical environment—in the construction of the discrete Bedouin identity and argues that the dynamics of localityare encapsulated in the integration of the biological, the environmental, and the social as existential spaces. Within this overarching framework analyzes the relationships among male Zalabieh Bedouins within their vast desert territory to capture their dual identities as men of the desert and servants of the government, which exist in a state calledbalanced opposition.},
 year = {2021}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Between Desert and State: Power Relations and Balance Between Tradition and Modernity Among the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum Desert
AU  - Katerina Marinaki
Y1  - 2021/06/22
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19
DO  - 10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19
T2  - Social Sciences
JF  - Social Sciences
JO  - Social Sciences
SP  - 140
EP  - 149
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2326-988X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20211003.19
AB  - This article presents an ethnographic study based on the 22 month research conducted with the ZalabiehBedouins of Wadi Rum (Jordan); herein focuses on the conceptualization of the identity of the malepopulation in multidimentional ways. In the first placediscusses the concept of “Bedouinism” as constructed through interactions with the state both by consent and by rupture; and then analyzes “manhood” as self-identification as understood via interactions with the outside “other.” Describes how the Zalabieh Bedouins of Wadi Rum desert, selected for their integrity, loyalty and trustworthy character, manned the army and the police, thereby maintaining and strengthening state institutions. It also shows, paradoxically, how the confidence to do so gives them the courage and audacity to oppose the State and its bureaucrats around certain issues. In addition discusses how manhood is related to Bedouinism and which cultural practices highlight manhood. Camel races and tourism--essential activities of these people-- are examined as hegemonic power parameters that display “us” and construct “otherness.” Presents a comparative analysis of camel races with “Balinese cockfights” as described and interpreted by Clifford Geertz in order to highlight certain important elements of Zalabieh Bedouin culture via cross-cultural comparison. Examines the dimensions of “space” and “place”--the desert as a physical environment—in the construction of the discrete Bedouin identity and argues that the dynamics of localityare encapsulated in the integration of the biological, the environmental, and the social as existential spaces. Within this overarching framework analyzes the relationships among male Zalabieh Bedouins within their vast desert territory to capture their dual identities as men of the desert and servants of the government, which exist in a state calledbalanced opposition.
VL  - 10
IS  - 3
ER  -

Copy | Download