Book
The manners and customs of the Rwala Bedouins
The American Geographical Society • (6) • Published In 1928 • Pages: xiv, 712
By: Musil, Alois.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The author, who was Professor of Oriental Studies at Charles University in Prague, spent many months traveling and camping with the Rwala. The results of his studies are given in this volume, supplemented by details learned from a companion of the Sba'a tribe. He has presented an immense amount of detailed information on the structure of Rwala society, native customs and traditions, domestic animals and animal transport, native beliefs and code of ethics, and war and peace. On most of these subjects the author has presented native ditties, songs and poems in Arabic and in translation which he heard in the desert and has tried to reproduce exactly as he heard them. In the author's notes following the literary texts there is a great deal of miscellaneous ethnographic material which has been categorized, as well as information about the poets and authors and the circumstances of composition. Throughout the volume there is much valuable information on native terminology and stylistics, the Arabic term and the author's translation being given in each case. There is an especially comprehensive section on war and peace in which the author makes clear how large a part this plays in Rwala life. He has not only described all the aspects of raids and warfare between the various clans and tribes, but has also presented a number of native accounts of wars and raids in which there is considerable material on tribal relations, the recent history of the Rwala, famous warriors and chiefs, etc.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Pastoral activities
- Annual cycle
- Fauna
- Ethnozoology
- Hunting and trapping
- Verbal arts
- Diet
- Food preparation
- Fowling
- Community structure
- Tribe and nation
- Dwellings
- Ethnosociology
- Kin relationships
- Chief executive
- Regulation of marriage
- Domesticated animals
- Instigation of war
- Revelation and divination
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Rwala Bedouin
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2009
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Middle East
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Middle East
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Social Scientist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Beverly Calsoyas ; 1955
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1900-1928
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Syria and Saudi Arabia
- NotesAdditional notes
- by Alois Musil … published under the patronage of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts and of Charles R. Crane
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 29007596
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Bedouins--Arabian Peninsula/Folklore--Arabian Peninsula