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:
African Rituals of Conflict
THIS paper presents a description of rites expressing social conflict among various African societies and offers suggestions concerning their functional significance. In doing so, it examines critically hypotheses and supporting data presented by Max Gluckman (1954b; 1959), who has provided the only substantial published writings on this subject. Gluckman discusses rites involving rebellion against authority among societies of southeastern Africa. The following discussion broadens the geographic area to Subsaharan Africa and enlarges the subject to include many ritual events not considered by Gluckman. Some of the rites to be discussed lack the element of conflict but are relevant in other respects. The idea that social conflict may serve important functions in supporting and maintaining society is fairly old in sociology (e.g., Simmel 1908). The outstanding contemporary work on this subject from sociology (Coser 1956) mentions anthropological writings only peripherally, drawing from them chiefly examples of institutionalized expressions of conflict. Anthropologists have not failed to note social conflicts, but they have generally regarded the conflicts as socially disruptive and have directed their attention chiefly to attempts to understand causes and modes of resolution. Only in recent years has anthropological thought turned to serious consideration of the idea that conflict may have positive as well as negative functional aspects. Gluckman's writings on customs of African peoples are among the earliest anthropological works that present hypotheses concerning socially integrative effects of expressions of conflict. Gluckman's criticism (1949a: 10) of Malinowski for his "refusal to see conflict as a mode of integrating groups and to recognize that hostility between groups is a form of social balance" is perhaps the first explicit expression of this point of view by an anthroplogist. Gluckman's interpretations are unusual in another respect. They are the first writings in the social sciences to set up as a distinctive class of events rituals that express conflict. Gluckman has called these customs "rituals of rebellion." He refers to rituals in which rules concerning behavior toward authority are seemingly abrogated temporarily. These are rites in which rulers and chiefs are reviled, criticized, and threatened by those subject to their authority, and men are similarly subjected to various ritual expressions of putative hostility enacted by women, who are their inferiors in authority. Gluckman sees the ritual enactment of conflicts of interest as a form of catharsis that banishes the threat to disunity imposed by the conflicts. This is a familiar line of reasoning in sociological writings on the role of conflict. Gluckman, however, goes further. He holds that institutionalized rites of rebellion may exist only in societies in which the social order is established and
Bantu Beliefs and Magic:
MR. HOBLEY'S study of Bantu beliefs and magic, dealing more specifically with the Kikuyu and Kamba peoples of Kenya, was first published in 1922. It was at once recognized as work of the first order, both as a study of these African peoples, and as a contribution to the general stock of anthropological material, most notably perhaps in its observation and interpretation of the place of the concept of thahu, the 'curse', as an element in their life and thought. The importance of this concept was duly stressed by Sir James Frazer in his preface to the original edition. The book has long been out of print. A new edition is welcome, not only because it makes accessible once more a book essential for the student, but also because much water has passed under the bridge since its original appearance. Mr. Hobley can now compare present-day conditions with his diagnosis of the native situation in the immediate post-War years.Bantu Beliefs and Magic: with particular reference to the Kikuyu and Kamba Tribes of Kenya Colony ; together with some Reflections on East Africa after the War. By C. W. Hobley. Pp. iii + 368 + 11 plates. (London: H. F. and G. Witherby, Ltd., 1938.) 15s. net.