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..
Abstract
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.
- HRAF PubDate
- 1999
- Region
- Africa
- Sub Region
- Northern Africa
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Ian Skoggard ; 1998
- Field Date
- 1973-1974
- Coverage Date
- 1959-1974
- Coverage Place
- Derna and Jebel Akhdar Provinces, Libya
- Notes
- Roy H. Behnke, Jr.
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-194) and index
- LCCN
- 79010605
- LCSH
- Bedouins