Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawī ( بدوي‎), a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic pastoralist groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and Negev to of the Arabian desert. It is occasionally used to refer to non-Arab groups as well, notably the Beja of the African coast of the Red Sea.
Traditional Bedouin culture
The Bedouins were traditionally divided into related tribes. These tribes were organized on several levels - a widely-quoted Bedouin saying is "I against my brothers, I and my brothers against my cousins, I and my brothers and my cousins against the world". The individual family unit (known as a tent or bayt) typically consisted of three or four adults (a married couple plus siblings or parents) and any number of children, and would focus on semi-nomadic pastoralism, migrating throughout the year following water and plant resources. Royal tribes traditionally herded camels, while others herded sheep and goats.
When resources were plentiful, several tents would travel together as a goum. These groups were sometimes linked by patriarchical lineage but just as likely linked by marriage (new wives were especially likely to have male relatives join them), acquaintance or even no clearly defined relation but a simple shared membership in the tribe.
The next scale of interactions inside tribal groups was the ibn amm or descent group, commonly of 3 or 5 generations. These were often linked to 'goums', but whereas a 'goum' would generally consist of people all with the same herd type, "descent groups" were frequently split up over several economic activities (allowing a degree of risk management: should one group of members of a descent group suffer economically, the other members would be able to support them). Whilst the phrase "descent group" suggests purely a patriarchical arrangement, in reality these groups were fluid and adapted their genealogies to take in new members.
The largest scale of tribal interactions is of course the tribe as a whole, led by a Sheikh. The tribe often claims descent from one common ancestor - as mentioned above, this appears patrilineal but in reality new groups could have genealogies invented to tie them in to this ancestor. The tribal level is the level that mediated between the Bedouin and the outside governments and organisations.
Bedouins traditionally had strong honor codes, and traditional systems of justice dispensation in Bedouin society typically revolved around such codes. The bisha'a, or ordeal by fire, is a well-known Bedouin practice of lie detection. See also: Honor codes of the Bedouin, Bedouin systems of justice
Bedouins are well known for practicing folk music, folk dance and folk poetry. See also: Bedouin music, Ghinnawa