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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.
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. [
Photo]
 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. (For details on shepherding go to:
http://www.vkrp.org/studies/cultural/simakiyya-study/info/shepherding-villagers.asp
) [
Photo1 &
Photo2]
 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.
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