Camel Raiding of North Arabian Bedouin: A Mechanism of Ecological Adaptation
T HE Bedouin camel breeding peoples of Arabia are among the most conspicuous in the public tradition of romanticized warrior nomads, but among the least used in current ethnological theory. Yet they inhabit a desert zone marked by varying and extreme geographical conditions for human survival and display in their modes of adaptation a wealth of features useful for developing cultural ecological theory. Moreover, their contiguity with regions occupied over millennia by complex states provides a host of problems of intercultural adaptations. Most prominent among these, perhaps, has been the persistence and elaboration of kinship as the organizing basis of these desert societies. This paper is concerned with examining some of the features and adaptive functions of one of the core mechanisms of Bedouin socio-cultural systems, institutionalized raiding, as a major factor in the persistence of such kin-based societies.2 Raiding is variously regarded as a sport, a passion, an industry by Western writers; it has been labelled brigandage, feuding, and warfare, and has been denounced and deplored, and rarely admired. But few serious students of Bedouin life have failed to appreciate its significance for the Bedouin, regardless of the moral or political stand from which the writers might evaluate it. Burckhardt, for example commented upon the precariousness of wealth in camel herds among the Bedouin, the rapid changes of individual fortunes as parties of men raided and counterraided each other's encampments. But he also calculated in monetary terms the cost of living as a Bedouin camel pastoralist. He concluded:
Study of Lactic Acid Bacteria Community From Raw Milk of Iranian One Humped Camel and Evaluation of Their Probiotic Properties
Background: Camel milk is amongst valuable food sources in Iran. On the other hand, due to the presence of probiotic bacteria and bacteriocin producers in camel milk, probiotic bacteria can be isolated and identified from this food product. Objectives: The objectives of the present research were the isolation and molecular identification of lactic acid bacteria from camel milk and evaluation of their probiotic properties. Materials and Methods: A total of ten samples of camel milk were collected from the Golestan province of Iran under aseptic conditions. Bacteria were isolated by culturing the samples on selective medium. Isolates were identified by amplification of the 16S rDNA and Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region between the 16S and 23S rRNA genes by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and were then screened and grouped by the Amplified Ribosomal DNA Restriction Analysis (ARDRA) method. To evaluate probiotic properties, representative isolates of different ARDRA profiles were analyzed. The antimicrobial activity of Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) against Pediococcus pentosaceus, Escherichia coli and Bacillus cereus was examined by the agar diffusion assay. Acid and bile tolerance of isolates were evaluated. Results: A total of 64 isolates were analyzed based on biochemical tests and morphological characteristics. The most frequently isolated LAB was Enterococci. Weissella, Leuconostoc, Lactobacilli and Pediococci were less frequently found. Based on restriction analysis of the ITS, the isolates were grouped into nine different ARDRA patterns that were identified by ribosomal DNA sequencing as P. pentosaceus, Enterococcus faecium strain Y-2, E. faecium strain JZ1-1, E. faecium strain E6, E. durans, E. lactis, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Lactobacillus casei and Weissella cibaria. The results showed that antimicrobial activity of the tested isolates was remarkable and P. pentosaceus showed the most antibacterial activity. In addition, E. durans, E. lactis, L. casei and P. pentosaceus were selected as probiotic bacteria. Conclusions: This study revealed the presence of bacteriocin-producing bacteria and probiotic bacteria in camel milk from the Golestan province of Iran.
Fixed Membership Groups: The Locus of Culture Processes
ANTHROPOLOGISTS, in dealing with culture changes, have usually limited themselves to contrasting newer and older patterns of behavior. Only recently have there been attempts to deal with the process of culture change (Bennett and Despres 1960; d'Azevedo 1959; Geertz 1957; Maher 1960; Vogt 1960). The present paper explores that process by locating the kinds of social groupings that may facilitate culture changes but does not try to suggest what culture changes might occur or even to assert that any will occur. The present thesis employs the Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft distinction originally set by Tonnies and used for various purposes by Weber and others. It will serve here to contrast social groups that tend to permit cultural changes among their members with those that do not. The cohesion of a Gemeinschaft, or communal group, is based largely on emotional ties. Its members regard their relations to one another as lasting indefinitely or at least for a very long time. Kinship groups, tribes, national communities are all examples of the Gemeinschaft or what will hereafter be called "fixed-membership" groups, each at its own level of integration. A Gesellschaft, or associative group, on the other hand, has as its formative principle a cultural determination. That is, its members are and remain members because of their continued support of the basic values or ideologies of the group. Examples of the Gesellschaft are religious sects, armies, political parties, voluntary associations, and business firms. These will be referred to as "flexible-membership" groups, and we shall try to justify the use of the terms "fixed membership" and "flexible membership." For the moment we may note that an enduring social group based primarily on the emotional ties of its members is better suited structurally to making shifts in its ideologies or values than one in which membership is retained by manifest support-or, at least, with no overt rejection-of the cultural beliefs held by the group.2 In dealing with culture changes it seems advantageous to differentiate culture and social structure, as Kroeber (1948: 7, 8, 10, 847), Parsons (1951:15 ff., 327, and passim), Merton (1957:esp. Parts I and II), Nadel (1957:149), and others have done. This distinction will help to direct our attention to those groups in which the process of cultural change is more likely to occur, and to avoid confusing social structural changes with cultural ones. The definitions of culture and social structure used here accord with those offered by the abovementioned authors. Culture is thus regarded as an ideational system, consisting of learned and shared symbols, technical skills, prescriptions for correct