Fertile Bonds
Regular price
€72.99
A01=Suzanne E. Joseph
agrarian
agro-pastoralist
Arab
Author_Suzanne E. Joseph
Bedouin
Bekaa Valey
biodemography
biology
birth rate
Category=JHMC
class
desert
economy
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnography
family studies
farmer
feminism
Fertile Bonds
fertility
French neo-colonialism
gender
global South
government
herding
kin
kinship
Lebanon
livestock
Malthus
marriage
Marx
medical anthropology
migration
modern
motherhood
nomad
pastoral
political
poverty
reproduction
sharecropper
social equality
Suzanne Joseph
Syria
Third World
urban development
Product details
- ISBN 9780813044613
- Weight: 456g
- Dimensions: 160 x 236mm
- Publication Date: 30 Sep 2013
- Publisher: University Press of Florida
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
With an average of over nine children per family, older cohorts of Bedouin in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon have one of the highest fertility rates in the world. Many married couples in this pastoral community are close relatives—a socially advantageous practice that reflects the deep value Bedouins place on kinship.
To outsiders, such family norms can seem disturbing, even premodern. They attract assumptions of Arab “backwardness,” poverty, and sexism. Astoundingly, however, Fertile Bonds flips these stereotypes. Anthropological demographer Suzanne Joseph shows that in this particular group, prolific birth rates coincide with moderate death rates and high levels of nutrition. Despite differences in gender, class, and occupation, members of Bekaa Bedouin society rely heavily on kinship ties, sharing, and reciprocity, and experience a high degree of social and demographic equality.
This story, unfamiliar to many, is one that is fading as traditional nomadic livelihoods give way to encapsulation within the state. With the help of this surprising, nuanced study—one of the first of its kind in the Middle East—knowledge of such marginalised pastoral groups will not vanish with the disappearance of their way of life. Joseph’s book expands our understanding of peoples far removed from consolidated government control and provides a broad analytical lens through which to examine demographic divides across the globe.
To outsiders, such family norms can seem disturbing, even premodern. They attract assumptions of Arab “backwardness,” poverty, and sexism. Astoundingly, however, Fertile Bonds flips these stereotypes. Anthropological demographer Suzanne Joseph shows that in this particular group, prolific birth rates coincide with moderate death rates and high levels of nutrition. Despite differences in gender, class, and occupation, members of Bekaa Bedouin society rely heavily on kinship ties, sharing, and reciprocity, and experience a high degree of social and demographic equality.
This story, unfamiliar to many, is one that is fading as traditional nomadic livelihoods give way to encapsulation within the state. With the help of this surprising, nuanced study—one of the first of its kind in the Middle East—knowledge of such marginalised pastoral groups will not vanish with the disappearance of their way of life. Joseph’s book expands our understanding of peoples far removed from consolidated government control and provides a broad analytical lens through which to examine demographic divides across the globe.
Suzanne E. Joseph is associate professor of anthropology at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi.
