Summary
The transition of nomadic peoples to permanent settlement, which in Dinero’s account of the Negev Bedouin was not a spontaneous or “natural” process but a state-driven one in which the Bedouin were reluctant participants (Settling for Less — The Planned Resettlement of Israel’s Negev Bedouin, PDF p.32, 35).
Details
- Dinero’s first proviso is that nomadism is a complete social, economic and political system, not merely a geographic mechanism, so altering it makes the whole system react and adapt (PDF p.16).
- The literature’s assumption that the passing of nomadism is a “natural” movement from “traditionalism” to “modernity” (Meir 1997:2, as cited) is, in the Israeli case, politicized: sedentarization was expected to bring a “cultural orientation away from the Arab culture of the Middle East toward a more modern Western culture” (Meir 1997:5, as cited, PDF p.32).
- Boneh’s formulation, quoted by Dinero, is that the Bedouin were “reluctant participants in the process of sedentarization” (Boneh 1983:72, as cited, PDF p.35).
- Fenster’s formulation, quoted by Dinero, is that nomads’ negative response to “‘top down’ sedentarization, even with positive incentive, stems from the simple fact that planning has not met their pluralist needs” (Fenster 1991:119-120, as cited, PDF p.45).
Related pages
Settling for Less — The Planned Resettlement of Israel’s Negev Bedouin, Siyaj, Pezurah, Naqab