Karak Resources Project

Shepherding the herds of the Simakiyya Villagers

A few minutes before 6 AM each morning the families of Simakiyya open the gate of their household sheepfold and send their sheep and goats into the streets of the village to be collected by the village herders. The herders of Simakiyya are all from the Azazmieh tribe, a displaced Palestinian tribe of Bedouins that reside in tents on the village fringe for most of the year. The interaction between the Christian villagers and the Moslem Bedouin is usually cordial and symbiotic. The young people in the village no longer are expected to herd animals and the Azazmieh men need the work.

During the dry hot summer months the animals are grazed for 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon. Taking the animals out at sunrise the herd are returned to the village for water and rest at 10 AM then recollected at 3:00 in the afternoon and brought home at 7 PM for feeding, watering and milking. If the area where the sheep and goats need to graze is more than one or two kilometers from the village, the shepherds take the flocks out at 3:00 in the afternoon, keep them out all night, and return them at 7:00 in the morning. For these night stays several herders will put their animals together and keep each other company through the night. The villagers do not brand their animals but paint a color spot on the sheep's back in green, blue, black, etc. to distinguish which animals belong to which herd. The sheep and goats from a particular household are familiar with each other and are so bonded that when the shepherd enters the village, he merely drives the flock down the main street of al-Simakiyya and groups from each household just join in. On the return of the sheep and goats to the village, the animals peel off and find their own way home just as they found their way to the common collecting area in the morning. It is the most amazing thing to watch as the animals break into groups of 3 to 30 and find their way home. The villagers have put all their animals together into six large herds and hired the local Azazmieh Bedouin to do all their herding.

The 22 year old Bedouin shepherd named Oday is one of the informants for this case study. 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. Oday 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 women from an Azazmieh family living on the Iraq border. 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. Oday said he would get another job if he could because the pay for being a shepherd is poor but he loves his work. For more than four years he has been herding the sheep and goats for the people of Simakiyya meanwhile, maintaining his own 70 head of sheep and goats.

The ring of the sheep bells is a very pleasant, tranquil sound as the herd moves along the desert paths. When asked about the bells on his sheep, Oday gave us an interesting story about how he decided which of the sheep should wear the bells. Three sheep were selected to wear a bell by a very clever method he developed. Oday held out a piece of bread to the flock and the three sheep that came up to him first where the ones chosen. I suppose he thought these were the sheep that were most favorable to him and would faithfully follow him. The ringing of the bells keeps the herd moving and the rhythm of the sound makes the animals move at a faster pace. Oday frequently yells at the animals, particularly the goats that chew pieces of plastic bags lying around everywhere in the desert or when they start to wander to far away. When asked what he yelled at them, he answered just sounds he learned as a boy to be most successful in getting the goats attention. Usually accompanying the yelling, Oday throws a stone or two in the direction of the disobedient animal, not intending to hit the animals but to get their attention.

Oday herds with a donkey and without a dog. Oday noted that he doesn't like dogs and they scare the sheep. His brother with a village herd of over 270 uses three dogs. The donkey is a great help in keeping the herd together. If he left the herd unattended with only the donkey, the sheep would stay right around the donkey. The donkey provides him with companionship, carries his water and other simple supplies, provides transportation when the shepherd tires of walking. Wherever the donkey goes the sheep will follow, so Oday leads his donkey with him in front of the herd and the sheep and goats obediently follow. Frequently, one will see a flock being moved toward or away from the village with the donkey in front as the leader and the shepherd bring up the rear.

There is only one type of sheep raised in Jordan but several types of goats. The fat tailed sheep are very well adapted to the dry environment of the desert. The extra fat in the tail can keep them through the dry season when the grass is so poor. The villagers use two types of goats, the Baladi (common) goat and the Shami goat. The Shami goat is larger than the common goat and is covered with thick straight hair that is excellent for weaving the tent cloths. Some Bedouin families have only goats because goats move better on the rocky sides of the wadis. They travel faster and move over longer distances than sheep. The milk from the goat has less fat than that of sheep, thus it is not as good for making milk products. At milking, the milk from the sheep and goats is mixed together.

Once the wheat and barley has been harvested, the villagers do not mind the sheep and goats entering their fields and eating the left over grain and stubble. The animals scavenge for dropped grain and eat the leftover stubble while they fertilize the field with their droppings. The only problem is that the droppings often contain undigested kernels of wheat and barley and if a farmer wants to rotate crops the next year, the sheep droppings will pollute the field with the grain seeds of this year. Sheep and goats are relatively easy to herd.

These Bedouin Azazmieh shepherds are helping the villagers of Simakiyya 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 villagers of Simakiyya are raising children they expect to be professionals and their neighbors, the Bedouin Azazmieh raise their youth to be like Oday, common laborers.