MARX, Emanuel. Bedouin of the Negev. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1967.
8vo. Publisher's green cloth, spine lettered in gilt; in the original pictorial dust wrapper (price-clipped); pp. xv, 260; with numerous leaves of plates, maps, diagrams, and tables throughout; slight bumping and rubbing to extremities of cloth; light sunning to spine of wrapper, with chipping to edges; text and plates clean, a good copy.
Uncommon first edition. Wrapper design by Max Nettleton. Within the State of Israel, in the Negev desert, there are approximately 16,000 Bedouin. They are organised on a tribal basis; pastoralism is one of the major sources of income. They still live under black goat hair tents and consider themselves and are considered by the settled population to be true Bedouin. Their life is shaped by a complex environment, the ecology, the political impact of the Israeli government, which rules by a special Military Administration, restricting nomadic movement and ownership of land, and the gradually increasing impact of the Israeli economy, involving wage labour, taxes, and so forth. In this study of contemporary Bedouin life, Dr Marx begins with a description of the ecological factors, land, water and climate, and an analysis of the effects of governmental administration upon it. In more detail, he takes one Bedouin tribe, describes first its political organisation and leadership, composition of camps and cycles of movement, and its patterns of marriage. He then examines the small groups and relationships existing within the tribe, showing how the interaction or manipulation of various groups of individuals, particularly by marriage, is used to further their needs and interests, and how such relationships are adapted to meet rapidly changing conditions.
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