Book
The herders of Cyrenaica: ecology, economy and kinship among the Bedouin of Eastern Libya
University of Illinois Press • (12) • Published In 1980 • Pages: xii, 197
By: Behnke, Roy H..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a brilliant analysis of the 'segmentary lineage system' of the Bedouin tribes of Cyrenaica. Behnke shows how kinship terminology is used to talk about rights to water holes, grazing pastures, and cultivated land under the complex conditions of a mixed economy, seasonal migration, and a variable climate. Households and lineages specialize in separate productive activites, either cattle ranching, or goat, sheep, or camel herding, all mixed to some degree with cereal cultivation. Each lineage can only succesfully pursue one or another activity, because the food and water requirements for each animal is different. Ranges for each herd overlap. By invoking ancestral names, herders lay claim to different land, grazing, and water rights identified with different ancestors. Benhke argues that kinship terminology especiallly after the Libyan socialist revolution of 1969 is not about corporate descent groups and segmentary lineages but about property rights. What he calls the art of kinship is the way the households and extended families negotiate rights to vital resources under always changing ecological, demographic, and political conditions. Behnke provides a detailed account of Bedouin ecology, settlemnet patterns, and kinship terminology.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Annual cycle
- Pastoral activities
- Cereal agriculture
- Water supply
- Settlement patterns
- Real property
- Kinship terminology
- Kin relationships
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Libyan Bedouin
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1999
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Northern Africa
- 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.
- Ethnologist
- 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
- Ian Skoggard ; 1998
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1973-1974
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1959-1974
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Derna and Jebel Akhdar Provinces, Libya
- NotesAdditional notes
- Roy H. Behnke, Jr.
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-194) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 79010605
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Bedouins