Flock Use among Bedouin in 'Spontaneous' Settlements in the Negev Desert, Southern Israel

Abstract

Abstract Approximately a thousand Bedouin families living in unrecognised, scattered settlements in the Negev desert, Israel, raise sheep and goats even though this enterprise shows marginal profits and, sometimes, losses. The aim of this study was to examine the uses of flocks among Bedouin households. It emerged that the flocks were kept for status, preservation of social networks, source of income, employment, family cohesion and maintaining land claims. Keywords: Bedouin households, sheep and goats, spontaneous settlements, Negev Desert Introduction There are about 120,000 Bedouin in the Negev Desert, Israel. More than half of them live in 'spontaneous' (non-planned and, therefore, not recognised by the authorities) settlements scattered throughout the Negev; most of these settlements are in the northern Negev. (1) At the end of the twentieth century, Bedouin from spontaneous settlements in the Negev owned most of the 1,395 flocks that were registered by the Israeli Agriculture Ministry (The Yearly Statistical Book for the Bedouin of the Negev 1999). The Negev, 12,500 square km in size, is part of the desert belt of the Sahara and the Arabian peninsula, and borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, the Sinai to the south, the Arava valley to the east, the Judean Desert to the north-east and the 200 mm isohyets to the north-west. The north-western Negev is semi-arid, the central Negev is arid and the southern Negev is hyper-arid (Stern et al. 1986). Annual precipitation averages about 200 mm at Beer-Sheva (northern Negev), 90 mm in the central Negev and 25 mm in the southern Negev (Bitan and Rubin 1994). Variability in quantity and dispersal of precipitation in time and space, extreme temperature oscillations and high potential evapo-transpiration (Bruins and Berliner 1998 Bruins and Lithwick 1998); prevail in the Negev and affect the diversity and dispersal of flora (Gutterman 2001, 2002). Bedouin flock owners from spontaneous settlements in the Negev comprise about 8 percent of the Negev Bedouin population. They use marginal means of production and derive only limited, if any, economic benefits from their flocks. Economic analyses of Bedouin raising flocks have shown marginal profitability and even losses (Ginguld et al. 1997; Degen et al. 2000). However, Bedouin sheep owners have other motives besides 'pure' economic ones (Ginguld et al. 1997). Although recent social, cultural, and economic changes prevail among the Negev Bedouin population, flock-raising families have experienced economic and social stagnation (Meir 1997, 2003). Extensive studies on Bedouin flock raising have been carried out, but only limited attempts have been made to examine the roles that raising livestock play in the life of Bedouin. Hypotheses and Methodology We studied uses of flocks in spontaneous settlements and compared families in the Avdat region (central Negev) with those in the Beer Sheva plain (northern Negev). In particular, the effects of environment (the Avdat region is more arid than the Beer Sheva Plain) and proximity to a large urban centre (the Avdat region is about 50 km from Beer Sheva; the Beer Sheva plain is close to this city) were examined. Our research was based on the following hypotheses: * Less arid areas provide more pasture and, therefore, flocks in the Beer Sheva plain rely on natural pasture to a greater extent than flocks in the Avdat region. * Proximity to commercial centres reduces reliance on products provided by the flock (milk, wool and manure) for domestic use and, therefore, families from the Avdat region use the flock's products for domestic use to a greater extent than families from the Beer Sheva plain. * Proximity to markets increases the number of animals and their products used as a source of cash income and, therefore, incomes from the flock will be higher among families from the Beer Sheva plain than among those from the Avdat region. …