The long history of Bedouin resistance to imposed states (under the Ottoman and British regimes, and from 1948 to 1967), and their agency and resistance to Israeli state policy, specifically to the military government, is examined. Certain aspects are also compared in relation to other Middle Eastern Bedouin communities (mainly in Syria and Jordan). The theoretical framework is drawn from scholarly writings that help to re-conceptualise the nature of the Bedouin-Israeli power relationship, while the Naqab case study references the literature on power, resistance, indigenous peoples, and state-minority relations. It is usually claimed that the Nagab Bedouin after 1948 were passive and silent, posing no threat, agency or resistance to the newly-imposed powerful Israeli regime; a simplistic and poorly-supported argument since the actual relationship was, and is, more complex and nuanced. While Israel during this period worked to fragment and control the Bedouin through various policies and tactics, the Bedouin like other indigenous peoples, utilised various methods to challenge the new state in order to survive and remain on their land. In-depth interviews conducted during 2007-2009 in the Nagab (southern Israel) with various tribes and key individuals from the Bedouin community, and with Israeli and British officials, suggest that under military government, Bedouin resistance to the authorities took various forms and mechanisms (e.g., political; cultural; physical and everyday resistance). This was relatively effective and produced several successes; they ?won? in limited ways, showing that Bedouin agency is much more substantial than was previously understood. This contribution to the underdeveloped sub-field of Palestinian-Bedouin research sheds new empirical light on the entire complex of Israel-minority relations. Today the Nagab remains contested because of Bedouin agency and resistance to the new state?s power. In fact, the Bedouin successfully modified Israeli state policies, thus requiring a new interpretation of the events of 1948-1967.

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This thesis examines the sedentarization of bedouin nomads in Saudi Arabia: partly in general, but mostly focussing on a particular region (Sajir) which was studied in the field. Our approach emphasizes that such bedouin communities were never self-contained, but rather an integral part of their regional and (latterly) national setting. Their integration has been crucially affected by broader processes: early political changes, development of the oil-based national economy, and recent rural policies (not all targeted specifically at bedouin). Moreover, we show how the bedouins themselves, far from being passively shaped by these pressures, have actively taken advantage of their opportunities and thus internalized these broader developments. Particular attention is paid to the settled agricultural alternative, with its associated land reforms and development programmes. More broadly, the heritage and shifting meanings of "bedouinism" are scrutinized in this context of rapid change. To these ends, the early chapters aim to: 1) Develop theoretical framework on nomads and sedentarization from the relevant literature (mostly authropological); 2) Review and evaluate previous studies of the sedentarization of Saudi nomads in particular; and 3) Give a comprehensive overview of the Saudi agricultural sector as a whole, thereby assessing its land reforms and development programmes. The latter four chapters report observations gathered from fieldwork in Sajir. These examine this comunity's sedentarization patterns, their present mix of agricultural and pastoral activities, and some of the specific socio-economic factors operative in the region. The main conclusions of the thesis emphasize: 1) The strength of bedouin integration (politically, socially, and economically) into the national context; 2) The unbalanced and differentiated nature and consequences for the bedouin of national land and agricultural policies; 3) The definitive impact of recent transformations of the rural econony on traditional bedouin occupations and livelihood; and 4) The continuing active (if changing) role of a specifically bedouin identity and ideology within the comunity.

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This thesis considers the importance of livestock in the household economy of the Ahl al Jebel Bedouin in the arid Badia region of north east Jordan. The principal objective of the study is to provide development planners working within the Badia region with information on how livestock are used and valued within a pastoral society and indicate ways in which these values may be subject to change. The study demonstrates that Bedouin herdowners have responded purposefully to developing regional markets for livestock products and have identified the income and capital growth values of livestock investments. However, the study further suggests that in important ways production for market supply is closely bound with the management of household resources, notably production for domestic consumption and the two spheres of production constitute complimentary aspects of the pastoral livelihood strategy. It is further argued that pastoral production in the Badia is mediated by the prevailing Bedouin value system which ascribes non-material values to livestock, thus giving social meaning to the way in Which herd owners choose to manage their herds. The thesis argues that the relationship between herd owners and their livestock must necessarily be flexible and suggests that changes in the way in which livestock are valued may constitute an important element in how households respond to change. The study thus characterises the Ahl al Jebel herd management objectives as innovative and fluid, and indicates that approaches to pastoral development need to be more sensitive to household objectives and more supportive of indigenous innovation.

This study describes the development of South Sinai, Egypt, including the role played in it by conservation. South Sinai has great ecological, cultural and strategic significance. Its central highlands, sacred to three faiths, form the St Katherine Protectorate, and its indigenous population consists of Bedu from eight tribes or confederations. The 1967 Six Day War resulted in intense transformation and intervention, first by Israel and then by Egypt. Before 1967 core bedouin livelihoods were agropastoral, but sedentarization and economic change made them uneconomic, increasing bedouin dependence on paid work. Since 1982 Egyptian policy has focussed on populating Sinai with Nile Valley Egyptians and developing it through its tourist industry. Both processes exclude Bedu, who have become a marginalized minority. Conservation policy has contributed to this outcome. I argue that Egypt’s conservation agenda in Sinai permits the claim that ‘something is being done’ to combat environmental degradation caused by settlement and tourism. However, underfunding of conservation ensures destructive development continues unopposed, while Bedu are strictly regulated. I examine Egyptian environmental and conservation policies and then their application to St Katherine in its European and Egyptian management phases. I investigate the ‘Bedouin overgrazing’ narratives that have informed conservation policy. These attribute vegetation loss to Bedu, ignoring alternative evidence, and providing a rationale for their ‘re-education’.Second I examine the impact of post-1967 interventions upon bedouin livelihoods, demonstrating a 95% decline in flock size from the 1960s to the present day, and the loss of viability of pastoralism. I illustrate growing polarization within bedouin society, and demonstrate lower access by Bedu to most goods and services compared to the general population. For half my sample (122 individuals in 82 households) income falls at or below $1 per person per day. 80% of Bedu are shown to experience food poverty compared with 44% of Egyptians. Official data on Bedu are not collected, and their poverty thus ignored by planners. I believe this is the first time their poverty has been demonstrated. Finally I examine how the Bedu have responded to marginalization and inequality. I argue that bedouin identity is eroded by their inequality as citizens, especially in town where it is most apparent. Attempts to revalidate themselves as Bedu crystallize around dissatisfaction with the Protectorate. As an act of resistance, Bedu have ‘reinvented’ an identity as guardians of nature, just as their actual dependence on nature declines.

This thesis analyses economic change among the bedouin of northern Arabia by examining four factors: the trade in camels; intertribal raiding; large-scale attacks by the Akhwan (Ikhwan); and trade and smuggling. Many writers have assumed that the sale or hiring out of camels for transport by camel-herding tribes was their main source of income, and that the spread of modern transportation caused a decline in the demand for camels, resulting in lower prices for the animals and an economic crisis for the bedouin. The well-documented case-studies in this thesis demonstrate that this assumption is flawed. The bedouin economy was more complex than the portrayals in many sources, and the reasons for economic hardship and political decline among the camel-herding tribes are more varied. In the story of how the wheel overcame the camel, it is clear that while transportation technology had some effect, even more important were such factors as drought, the rise of new states, colonial policies, intertribal politics and the varied factors pulling nomadic peoples to become sedentary.

This qualitative research study, conducted at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Beersheva, Israel, examined the interrelationships between language, identity and power in the context of a modern, multicultural society. The study focused on the impact of language use and status on the cultural, political and social identities of female students belonging to the Bedouin and the former Soviet Union (FSU) immigrant communities. As members of an ethnic subgroup of the Arab minority, and as females subordinated within their own traditionally patriarchal society, women of the indigenous Bedouin tribes of the Negev region have been dubbed a 'doubly marginalized' minority. In 1989, following decades of religious persecution, Jews were allowed to leave the FSU en masse; nearly one million have immigrated to Israel. This massive immigration of Russian speakers, as well as programs promoting study for Arabic-speaking Bedouin women, have led to greater diversity and increased multilingualism at BGU. The university offers a unique microcosm in which to study the language use, attitudes and consequent impact on the identities of these two distinctive minority groups.This study explored the attitudes of six female Bedouin and FSU immigrant students of BGU residing in the Negev region of Israel toward their first, second and foreign languages. Using data collected from in-depth interviews, I linked informant attitudes to underlying issues of gender, social status, identity, power and empowerment. Language took on new meanings and status as these students utilized Hebrew and English for purposes of communication and knowledge acquisition at the university level. Moreover, the new linguistic scenarios faced by Bedouin and FSU immigrant informants raised complex social issues and tensions, and influenced their perceptions about language and identity.Themes that emerged concerning language use and status, and self-perceptions of identity led to conclusions involving issues related to gender, social status, community, nationality, ethnicity, globalism, and power relations, as well as to future prospects made possible by higher education. It was demonstrated that, like the process of language acquisition, perceptions of identity and culture are dynamic in nature and are continually being reinvented.

The objective of this thesis is to enhance the archaeological visibility of mobile pastoralists in the southern Levant, accomplished through an ethnoarchaeological study of Bedouin mortuary practices in Jordan. Qualitative data, collected via 136 ethnographic interviews, and quantitative data, collected from 20 Bedouin cemeteries, are analyzed to distinguish the material residues of Bedouin funerary practices. Patterns in these data are investigated using a multi-scalar spatial model, to improve archaeological interpretations and produce a predictive model for locating the material signatures of mobile pastoralist mortuary practices in the southern Levant. This research yields results of high archaeological visibility, demonstrating that Bedouin mortuary practices leave behind a detectable material signature on the landscape. / February 2017