Pastoralism among the Bedouin
Most of the herders of Karak Plateau are from the Azazmieh tribe, a displaced Palestinian tribe of Bedouins that reside in tents on the villages’ fringe for most of the year. The interaction between the villagers and the Bedouin is usually cordial and symbiotic. The villager families with household flocks of 5 to 30 head of sheep and goats put their animals together into large herds and hire the local Azazmieh Bedouin to do all their shepherding.
Bedouin herder with one of several collected village herds
The 22 year old Bedouin shepherd named Odee is one of the informants for this example. He comes from a family of five and has been married for two years but has no children. He thinks his wife might have a problem getting pregnant but has no money to take her to a doctor. Shepherd pay is very low. Odee wanted to marry one of his cousin’s daughters, but they would not agree or possibly he did not have enough money in exchange for their daughter, so he married a woman from an Azazmieh family living on the Iraq border. Odee lives with his father and mother and an assortment of other relatives.
Odee with sheep and goats grazing on wheat stubble
His pay is based on how many animals he herds. This herd has 120 head with 50 sheep and 70 goats. The problem is 30 of the 70 goats are under one year old and he doesn’t get paid for herding the smaller animals. His pay is one half a J.D. per month and with 90 adult animals that comes to only 45 J.D., approximately $63 USD. The village families subsidize his pay with gifts of food and sugar.
Odee said he would get another job if he could because the pay for being a shepherd is so poor but he loves his work. For more than four years he has been herding the sheep and goats for the people of al-Simakiyya, a Christian village in the northeast corner of the plateau while maintaining his own 70 head of sheep and goats. Odee loves the animals, his donkey, the sheep, and the goats. He loves being outside especially when the herds are grazing at night. He loves the freedom of being a herder, the sound of the sheep bells, the dust of the desert
These Bedouin Azazmieh shepherds are helping the villagers of the Karak Plateau continue their tradition of keeping animals and processing milk products. They relieve the villagers from the labor intensive and time-consuming activity of herding. While the village youth are watching TV, attending school, or away at college, the young men and women of the Bedouin Azazmieh are herding the villagers’ animals as well as their own flocks and learning the skills of being a shepherd. The consequences of such early socialization is that the Bedouin Azazmieh raise their youth to be like Odee, common laborers and the villagers of the plateau are raising children to be professionals and exploit a cheap labor supply.
Returning herd at noon and herder with new born lamb