This was an ethnographic study of the woven tent objects produced by the Bedouin Otaibah tribe in Najd, central Saudi Arabia; the study examines origin, techniques, character and significance of their weavings. A major objective of the researcher was to discern the relationship between the weavers' development of traditions and the factors of technique, medium and perceived meaning. The method used was investigative fieldwork that included techniques of face to face interviews and participant observation. Interviews with 50 Bedouin female weavers in Najd were conducted for 8 months. Background information on the Otaibah tribe and their traditional way of life was provided. The review of the literature of traditional arts, folk arts and art education illustrates that there is limited accessible information concerning the general history of traditional arts in Saudi Arabia. A discussion of the aesthetic value, definitions and roles of traditional art, tribal art and the differences between art and crafts was included. Analysis of data answered the study's questions through a presentation of the findings of the fieldwork. The Otaibah tribe has its own unique style of weaving. Information gathered from participant observation and documents from the Haifa Faisal Collection of Saudi Arabian Traditional Arts in Chicago supplements information obtained by interview. The findings indicate that as a result of modernization and settlement, traditional Bedouin weavings are gradually being replaced. Weavers find themselves forced to compete with a deluge of imported machine-made goods, a development changing structure of the culture from nomadic to semi--modernized creating a new foundation of social and economic life for the society. The.results of the study provide a curriculum base for art education in Saudi Arabia. Suggestions for further studies, recommendations and the implications for art education are included.

This thesis explores the role and impact of leadership as a socially constructed and aesthetic phenomenon in tribal-dominated Bedouin Arabia. The concept of leadership is investigated in terms of its discursive and aesthetic dimensions across different geographical, historical, and intellectual settings by adopting and applying a Foucauldian perspective of interconnected concepts of power/knowledge, discourse, subjectivity, body symbolism and the power of gaze. The thesis draws on three related types of data: First, images to understand the leaders’ perspective. Second, interviews with artists to gain insights into the visual message and the creative process. Third, through semi-structured interviews with the audience to garner an understanding of how it perceives the message leaders send. This thesis contributes theoretically to ongoing research into the visual representation of leadership and to critical debates concerning Foucauldian perspectives on discourse, power, discipline and the body. This thesis concludes by recommending practical implications for rethinking leadership as something both aesthetic and mythical to consider the role of followership in the consumption of leadership-themed visual artworks and communication, and the growing global role and influence of social media in shaping leader-follower relations.

No description available.

Unseen, unheard and unconsidered, Qatar’s migrant worker population is building one of the richest countries in the world. They labor in Qatar’s high heat index1 climate, which is coincidentally comparable to an Oriental sauna, wearing the most rudimentary of clothes. Working up to 60 hours a week, migrant workers fall victim to heat stress and dozens are hospitalized daily, starting as early as March and increasing in numbers during the peak months of June to August. Since clothes are essentially a “second skin,” affecting the rate and efficiency with which heat is exchanged between the body and its surroundings, a concept garment was designed to improve thermal comfort. Low-tech, indigenous heat-management systems are combined with new technologies and knowledge of human physiology to design a two-layer suit that aims to optimize heat exchange mechanisms. The suit enhances radiation, convection and evaporation by having a snug-fitting inner wicking layer and a loose-cut outer shell, and by using strategically placed vents, perforations, and Phase Change Material (PCM) packs. Using fiction as a medium of social commentary and critical design, the concept suit borrows from the superhero aesthetic to present the migrant worker in a new light. The suit denotes power, symbolizing the superhuman feat these workers perform and their true worth to the economy. Its aesthetic and function aim to improve worker morale and performance. Mapping, scoping and primary and secondary qualitative and quantitative research have been used throughout the design process. This is in addition to an ethnographic study, field observations, material explorations, body storming and experimentation.

L'analyse critique des différentes prospections archéologiques réalisées dans la péninsule du Sinaï montre clairement que la partie ouest du Sinaï central n'a jamais été explorée totalement avant l'inventaire qui a commencé au milieu des années 1990. Sans étude de cette zone, tout modèle d'occupation ancienne du territoire sinaïtique se révèle insuffisant. L'objectif principal de mon doctorat était de fournir des informations de nature géographique et anthropologique aux archéologues. D'un point de vue méthodologique, l'ensemble des structures archéologiques géoréférencées a été intégré dans un système d'information géographique (SIG). Ces vestiges ont été replacés dans leur contexte environnemental (climat, géologie, géomorphologie, végétation…). Parallèlement, j'ai engagé un travail de documentation anthropologique relatif aux populations bédouines actuellement installées dans la péninsule en général, dans le Sinaï central en particulier. Je me suis particulièrement concentré sur l'étude des structures et des limites tribales, de la gestion des territoires, des pratiques liées au culte des saints et de l'économie. Dans le cadre de cette réflexion ethnoarchéologique, les nouveaux acquis permettent d'établir une analyse comparative de l'occupation ancienne et actuelle du Sinaï central. Mes conclusions sont susceptibles d'être utiles à l'interprétation des vestiges archéologiques du Sinaï central et à l'élaboration d'un modèle de l'occupation ancienne de cette région durant l'Holocène. / Critical analysis of the archaeological surveys conducted in the Sinai Peninsula shows that the western central Sinai had never been explored before the beginning of this survey in the mid-1990's. Without a study of this area, models of the ancient occupation of the sinaitic territory were insufficient. The main objective of my PhD was to provide geographical and anthropological information to the archeologists. From a methodological point of view, all georeferenced archaeological structures were integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS). These remains were placed in their environmental context (climate, geology, geomorphology, vegetation…). In parallel, I initiated an anthropological documentary work on Bedouin currently living in the Peninsula in general, in the central Sinai in particular. I particularly concentrated on the tribal structures and boundaries, the management of territories, the cult of the saints and the economy. As part of this ethnoarchaeological reflection, new learning can establish a comparative analysis of past and current occupation of central Sinai. The conclusions of my studies may help to understand the archeological remains in the central Sinai and to develop a model of the region's occupation during the Holocene.

[Truncated abstract] Polymorphic Alu insertions (POALINs) are known to contribute to the variation and genetic diversity of the human genome. In this report specific POALINs of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) were studied. Previous population studies on the MHC POALINs have focused on individuals of African, European and Asian descent. In this study, we expand the research by studying a new and previously uncharacterised population, focusing on the Bedouin from the Middle East. Specifically we report on the individual insertion frequencies of four POALINs within the MHC class I region of this population. POALINs are members of a young Alu subfamily that have only recently been inserted into the human genome. POALINs are either present or absent at particular sites. Individuals that share the inserted (or deleted) polymorphism inherited the insertion (or deletion) from a common ancestor, making Alu alleles identical by decent. In population genetics a comparison of the resulting products from each population can then be done by comparing the lengths of the PCR products in a series of unrelated individuals and may also detect polymorphisms with regard to the presence or absence of the Alu repeats. As a direct result of their abundance and sequence identity, they promote genetic recombination events that are responsible for large-scale deletions, duplication and translocations. The deletions occur mostly in the A-T rich regions and have found to be unlikely to have been created independently of the insertions of the Alu elements (Callinan et al, 2005) The easy genotyping of the POALINs has proven to be very valuable as lineage markers for the study of human population genetics, pedigree and forensics as well as genomic diversity and evolution. POALINs have been used in a range of applications, primarily focusing on anthropological analysis of human populations. As a result of its ease of use and its utility as a marker in human evolutions studies, combining the POALINs along with other markers used in forensics could lead to improved identity testing in forensic science. More specifically, in combination with more traditional markers, race specific genotypes and haplotypes could be used for profiling crime scene samples. ... This is supported by previously reported molecular data using various types of genetic markers. In a study using six separate Alu genes, Antunez-de-Mayolo et al were able to generate a phylogenetic tree, in which the biogeographical groups followed a pattern. The biogeographical groups started with African populations that were found to relate closely to the hypothetical ancestral African population. The African populations were then followed in order by Southwest Asian populations, European populations which include Middle Eastern groups (Antunez-de-Mayolo et al, 2002). This study shows the similarities and differences between the frequencies of the Middle Eastern Bedouin and the rest of the compared populations. Though no clear results were determined, the information from the POALINs along with information provided from other genetic markers can lead to further research on the Bedouin population and the improvement of the forensic population database in order to accurately test individual ethnic background of samples to be analysed.

No description available.

<p>There are two central themes to this thesis. Firstly, it shows how the adoption of people-centered and greening development paradigms, designed to improve mainstream development problems of the late 20^th century, continue to produce unsatisfactory and unsustainable results for intended beneficiaries in the 21^st century. Secondly, it shows how the “intended beneficiaries” use their experiences and their knowledge of the development processes to analyze, explain and voice why it has not worked for them. Their <em>local knowledge</em> illustrates how beneficiaries continue to remain on the “outside” or peripheral to development instead of being equal partners as the people-centered discourse claims.</p> <p>This thesis reviews the development of the Wadi Rum Protected Area (WRPA) in southern Jordan. This development fostered both conservation and tourism projects to assist members of the seven local Bedouin communities or clans whose historical rangelands constitute the protected area. Four significant development decisions and projects are examined to better understand how this development functioned. Many Bedouin commentaries and those of some non-Bedouin involved in the projects provide social, economic and environmental assessments of the protected area's progress over a ten year continuum. What emerges is a nuanced awareness of how the WRPA has not achieved its stated goals or the benefits promised to the Bedouin, but did support other developers', lenders' and government objectives. Bedouin knowledge also highlights how “development” has contributed to a near dissolution of their control over what had been their tourism industry, how it has usurped their control of their lands and villages, how the project has created greater divisiveness between and within the clans and how it has come to support the growth of tourism over environmental protection. In general, the development of the Wadi Rum Protected Area has not achieved its people-centered and green goals.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In this dissertation, I investigate various aspects of object marking and how these manifest themselves in the signed modality. The main focus is on Swedish Sign Language (SSL), the national sign language of Sweden, which is the topic of investigation in all five studies. Two of the studies adopt a comparative perspective, including other sign languages as well. The studies comprise a range of data, including corpus data, elicited production, and acceptability judgments, and combine quantitative and qualitative methods in the analyses. The dissertation begins with an overview of the topics of valency, argument structure, and object marking, primarily from a spoken language perspective. Here, the interactions between semantics and morphosyntax are presented from a typological perspective, introducing differential object marking as a key concept. With regard to signed language, object marking is discussed in terms of both verbal and nominal strategies. Verbal strategies of object marking among sign languages include directional verbs, object handshape classifiers, and embodied perspective in signing. The first study investigates the use of directionality and object handshapes as object marking strategies in Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), Israeli Sign Language (ISL), and SSL. It is shown that the strategies generally display different alignments in terms of the types of objects targeted, which is uniform across languages, but that directionality is much more marginal in ABSL than in the other two languages. Also, we see that there is a connection between object marking strategies and the animacy of the object, and that the strategies, object animacy, and word order preferences interact. In the second and third studies, SSL is investigated with regard to the transitive–reflexive distinction. Here, we see that there are interactional effects between object handshapes and the perspective taken by the signer. This points to intricate iconic motivations of combining and structuring complex verb sequences, such as giving preference to agent focusing structures (e.g., agent perspective and handling handshapes). Furthermore, the use of space is identified as a crucial strategy for reference tracking, especially when expressing semantically transitive events. Nominal strategies include object pronouns and derivations of the sign PERSON. The fourth study provides a detailed account of the object pronoun OBJPRO in SSL, which is the first in-depth description of this sign. It is found that the sign is in widespread use in SSL, often corresponds closely to object pronouns of spoken Swedish, and is argued to be grammaticalized from the lexical sign PERSON. In the final study, the possible existence of object pronouns in other sign languages is investigated by using a sample of 24 languages. This analysis reveals that the feature is found mostly in the Nordic countries, suggesting areal contact phenomena. However, the study also shows that there are a number of derivations of PERSON, such as reflexive pronouns, agreement auxiliaries, and case markers. The use of PERSON as a source of grammaticalization for these functions is attributed to both semantic and phonological properties of the sign. This dissertation is unique in that it is dedicated to the topic of object marking in the signed modality. It brings a variety of perspectives and methods together in order to investigate the domain of object marking, cross-linguistically and cross-modally.

In this thesis, I assert that photographs of Jordanian Bedouin produced by cultural insiders disrupt and challenge pan-Bedouin and romantic photographic constructions of Bedouin made by cultural outsiders. These outsiders, Western ethno-photographers and members of the Jordanian Hashemite monarchy, use photographs featuring visual symbols of Bedouin identity in order to legitimise claims to land, resources, and cultural capital. Data produced from collaborative action research (the creation of photography with a self-identifying Bedouin family from Humayma, Jordan) demonstrates an increasingly complex version of Jordanian Bedouin identity absent from outsider representations. This nuanced picture of Bedouin identity, while limited by its focus on a single family, may help contribute to further collaborative investigations of Bedouin identity in Jordan. This research has the potential to assist in the better understanding of the diverse social practices and concerns of Bedouin living in Jordan today.