A new edition of Dawn Chatty\u2019s seminal 1986 study of the Bedouin of Lebanon and Syria which investigates the community\u2019s meshing of modernity and tradition as manifested in the transition from camel to truck as primary means of transport.<\/p>\n
The Bedouin tribes of Northern Arabia have lived thousands of years as pastoralists, migrating across the semi-arid\u00a0badia<\/em>\u00a0in search of graze and browse for their herds. Romantic images of Bedouin \u2013 black tents, robed Arabs and camels \u2013 still persist. However, mobile pastoral livelihoods have come under pressure to change in recent years. The modern nation-states of the Middle East view pastoralism as anachronistic and encourage Bedouin to become settled cultivators. An even more dramatic shift has taken place within the last few decades: the Bedouin have traded in their camels as beasts of burden in favour of the half-ton truck. The ship of the desert is now a Toyota, Datsun, Nissan or General Motors pick-up. Nevertheless, many Bedouin continue to herd livestock \u2013 sheep, goat and camel \u2013 at the same time as engaging in new economic activities. They have been open to remarkable change whilst firmly holding onto their culture, and their traditional moral and value systems. The truck has allowed many the possibility of interacting with the region\u2019s modern economy while still pursuing their mobile pastoral livelihoods.<\/p>\n Extensive field research underlies anthropologist Dawn Chatty\u2019s comprehensive study. She examines contemporary Bedouin society of Lebanon and Syria in the contexts of history, economy and political and moral culture. She details the consequences of motorized transport for this community \u2013 and she draws some surprising conclusions about its future viability. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ISBN 978-1-874267-72-0 (PB)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1143,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[80],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4088","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-geoganth","8":"first","9":"instock","10":"shipping-taxable","11":"purchasable","12":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whpress.co.uk\/publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/4088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whpress.co.uk\/publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whpress.co.uk\/publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whpress.co.uk\/publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whpress.co.uk\/publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whpress.co.uk\/publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=4088"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whpress.co.uk\/publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=4088"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whpress.co.uk\/publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=4088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}