Fertile Bonds by Suzanne E Joseph

Fertile Bonds by Suzanne E Joseph

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.

Suzanne E. Joseph is associate professor of anthropology at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780813044613
ISBN 10	0813044618
Title	Fertile Bonds
Author	Suzanne E Joseph
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	University Press of Florida
Year published	2013-09-30
Number of pages	256
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.