The Rwala Bedouin Today (Changing Cultures)

Considered by many scholars to be one of the best modern ethnographies on Middle Eastern ethnic groups, this highly regarded, unromanticized account of Bedouin life--now updated--offers readers a clear explanation of kinship systems in nomadic societies. The author and his family spent several years with the Rwala Bedouin of the Arabian peninsula, living as they did. Lancaster's analysis focuses on Rwala social organization and the way in which the Rwala manipulate their social environment to cope with changing conditions. Like nomads everywhere, the Rwala are under pressure to come to terms with sedentarism and modernization; Lancaster examines the way in which they cope with what they see as an attack on their identity and autonomy.