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An Anthropological Demographic Study of Bedouin Agro-Pastoral Tribes in the Bekaa

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An Anthropological Demographic Study of Bedouin Agro-Pastoral Tribes in the Bekaa FORMS OF PRODUCTION AND DEMOGRAPHIC REGIMES: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL DEMOGRAPHIC STUDY OF BEDOUIN AGRO-PASTORAL TRIBES IN THE BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON by SUZANNE EZZAT JOSEPH (Under the direction of Alexandra Avril Brewis) In order to explain the timing and patterning of demographic transitions, studies are needed in societies either currently undergoing transition or where fertility remains high and unrestricted. This dissertation provides an anthropological demographic and ethnographic study of Bedouin agro-pastoral tribes in the Bekaa, which exemplify both these features. That is, fertility is high and unrestricted by widespread contraceptive use (completed family size is 8.9; n= 65); although there is evidence of recent fertility decline (total period fertility rate is 5.5; n=224). It is among the first anthropological demographic studies in the Middle East. To provide a historical portrait of Bedouin fertility, indirect estimates of completed family size were derived from interviews with 160 older informants about their post-reproductive mothers’ fertility histories. Very high fertility—over eight live births— is seen among women born between 1934-1960—a period that coincides with the commodification, peasantization, and proletarianization of the Bedouin economy. Focus on the proximate determinants shows high fertility is due to early weaning and marriage, low rates of marital instability, and low incidence of primary sterility. Low infant mortality rates (53/1000) and child mortality rates (16/1000) are due to access to high quality weaning foods and safe birthing and maternal care practices. Previous political economic research from historical Europe as well as Iran and Nepal suggests the centrality of class formation and caste stratification in understanding demographic variation and change. While class divisions and fertility differences are present between land-poor Bedouin tribes and Lebanese landowning peasants in the Bekaa, class stratification is not seen in social relations of production within Bedouin society. Furthermore, major household forms of production—sharecropping, pastoralism, and wage labor—do not differ in their associated fertility or mortality patterns. The internal demographic structure of Bedouin society parallels the internal egalitarian social structure and cultural ideology. Intrasocietal differences in fertility are largely due to physiological mechanisms, particularly differences in age-specific sterility among married women. High total population fertility levels and rising historical fertility levels are associated with greater participation in agriculture among the Bekaa Bedouin. Taken together, these findings reinforce the importance of scale in explaining demographic change. INDEX WORDS: Anthropological demography, Ecological/Environmental anthropology, Political economy, Demographic transitions, Pastoralism, Modes of production, Middle Eastern ethnology, Bedouin FORMS OF PRODUCTION AND DEMOGRAPHIC REGIMES: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL DEMOGRAPHIC STUDY OF BEDOUIN AGRO- PASTORAL TRIBES IN THE BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON by SUZANNE EZZAT JOSEPH B.A., University of Central Florida, 1995 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2002 © 2002 Suzanne Ezzat Joseph All Rights Reserved FORMS OF PRODUCTION AND DEMOGRAPHIC REGIMES: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL DEMOGRAPHIC STUDY OF BEDOUIN AGRO-PASTORAL TRIBES IN THE BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON by SUZANNE EZZAT JOSEPH Approved: Major Professor: Alexandra Brewis Committee: Theodore Gragson Stephen Kowalewski Charles Peters Kavita Pandit Electronic Version Approved: Gordhan L. Patel Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2002 DEDICATION To my mother-in-law, Deebie, this dissertation is yours and mine. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people to thank. First, it all begins and ends with Osama—the reason I became interested in the Bekaa. You are my vital motivation. I would also like to thank my family for their love and support. Thank you Ikbal, my mother, for your emphasis on education and for speaking to us in Arabic growing up. Thank you Sabrina, Raumi and Ezzat. Thank you to Amal and Deebie for your love and friendship; I couldn’t have done this without you. Thank you Kookie, Ahmad, Araf, Jad and Khalil. I would also like to thank my committee. It is impossible to overemphasize the mentoring and support I have received under Alex, Steve, Charles, Ted and Kavita. From the beginning, they demonstrated a high level of commitment and interest in my academic development as a student anthropologist. My education was a unique balance of academic freedom and partnership. Under my advisor, Alex Brewis, I felt that there was nothing I couldn’t do if I set my mind to it. I was encouraged and pushed as far as I was willing to go. I was fortunate to have someone who brought Alex’s intensity, intelligence and confidence that I could tap into. If any of it rubbed off, I don’t plan on giving it back. I thank Steve Kowalewski for the stimulating courses, conversations and feedback at all stages of my graduate education. I am an admirer. I am sure there are more of your influential ideas in what I have written than I will ever be able to properly acknowledge. Thank you Charles Peters for your tremendous creative spirit. Without your sharp mind and intellectual generosity, I would have missed a truly extraordinary learning v experience. Thank you Ted Gragson for the encouragement, intellectual devotion and breadth you bring; you make me want to work harder. Thank you Kavita Pandit for always asking the ‘big’ questions that require the most thought. I have learned a tremendous amount from you. I thank Charlotte Blume for looking after me and other students with the sincerest kindness and concern, always going the extra mile. Thank you Meredith for your assistance with data entry (and Alex for facilitating everything). I thank the Human Ecosystems Group at UGA and Greg Guest for their friendship and intellectual support. I am very grateful to my field assistant and transcriber Mohammed Shamaly for his hard work and patience. What unforgettable experiences we had with our Bedouin friends in the Bekaa! Thank you Ahmad Sawan and Wassim Saleh for your assistance with interviewing and transcribing; you went beyond the call of duty. I would like to thank Lela at the ministry of agriculture in Lebanon for all of her patient assistance. Thank you Bassam and Ahmad Kahlan for your hospitality and assistance in Syria. I will not forget our exciting adventures in the Badia. Thank you Lela, Ramha, Shousha and Skoot for welcoming me into your families. You are among the most remarkable women I have ever met. And I would like to thank all the Bedouin families who welcomed us into their homes and hearts. Thank you for giving me the kind of experience that as an anthropologist you only dream about. We shared our family and work experiences. We laughed. We had passionate discussions… I will forever be grateful for your trust, friendship and sharing. To those who do not know the Bedouin, their extraordinary warmth, generosity, eloquence and honesty, all I can do is share this dissertation and say: shoufitoun ‘adra wa la hasrotoun bi l-ghroub. vi PREFACE Demographic regimes and their transformations have important impacts on all facets of society, from when and who we marry, how we pace childbearing, and how natural resources are utilized through the production process. One of the most important revolutions in social life over the past two centuries is the demographic transition. As a result of the historic decline in fertility and mortality, many couples have ceased to devote a large portion of their adult lives to childbearing and childrearing, and according to many are able to enjoy greater economic prosperity as a result. However, this sociodemographic revolution seems to have left some of the poorer countries of the world behind. Livi Bacci (1997) points out that in about a century—by 2100—the poor countries of the world will have already matched the expansion of the rich countries in the two centuries following the Industrial Revolution (p. 159). Many see such extraordinary growth as a negative force, which threatens the world’s limited resources. However, more than just being a negative force, Malthusians and neo-Malthusians explain overpopulation as the “natural” plight of the poor, whereas Marxists have pointed to the ways in which exploitative political economies create not only an imbalance in economic well-being but in demographics as well. Malthus (1989) deduced his law of population from a priori universal principles: specifically, that food is essential to human existence and that the passion between the vii sexes is constant. He then introduces the notion of a world with fixed or finite resources and formulates his famous “natural law” in which population (with its geometric) growth places pressure on the means of subsistence (with its arithmetic expansion) inevitably producing poverty, disease, hunger, war and a general tendency towards “overpopulation”. While Malthus was content to attribute the plight of the poor to the “natural law” of population (although Malthus (1989) did recognize that “laws of private property” played a role in the misery of the lower classes), Marx’s (1967, 1973) explanation recognizes socially and historically specific “laws” of population. Thus, according to Marx, poverty and misery were due to the crisis tendencies (related
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