Rashaayda Bedouin

A supplement to introductory anthropology and cultural anthropology courses, this is the only available book-length study of an Arab Bedouin society that supplements customary observations with data about gender and race. In clear, non-technical language, this new case study integrates cultural meanings with the pastoral economy. Drawing on the Bedouin notion of habitus, the author points out connections between the cultural organization of space, the sexual division of labour, and gender identity, giving students a strong model of the kind of analysis influential in contemporary anthropology. Features: * Combines material data and cultural perspectives to explain how this non-Western society is shaped by both its political economy and by its Arab, Muslim traditions. * Paints an intimate portrait of family life in a society where women are always veiled, marriages are arranged, and men may marry polygamously, encouraging discussions of women's issues and cultural ethnocentrism, and the structure of family relations. * Describes nomadic households in detail, showing how tents are divided to construct a unique home environment, and providing students with examples of non-Western households. * Discuss the history of slavery in Bedouin society, explaining its place in history and its implications for the present. * Provides a wide, cross-cultural context for disussing the significance of race and wealth in a non-industrial, relatively unstratified society. * Illustrates the actual fieldwork experience of the author, giving students a concrete example of the work of anthropologists. * Extensive pedagogy includes glossaries of Arabic terms and anthropological vocabulary, current bibliography, diagrams of social relationships, and maps and photographs.