Page 224 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

Social Aspects of Traditional Economy

leading pearling community in the Gulf. This does not mean that all
Bani Yas men participated in all these activities; as the above
description of the sub-tribes shows, there were whole groups who
never went diving and others, in particular the Rumaithal fishermen,
who in recent generations never went to the Lfwa. Because these
seasonal occupations overlapped—the date harvest taking place
during the ghaus a I kablr, the great dive—there had to be a great deal
of co-ordination of activities in the family and within the tribal
society as a whole.
The slightly different economic inclinations of the Manaslr, who
did not own many pearling boats, facilitated a system of carelaking.
For a fixed fee a tribesman from another Bani Yas sub-tribe or from
the Manaslr was paid to look after camels during their owners’
absence. Since most people were still in the desert and did not return
to the Llwa at the lime for pollinating the date palms in March, some
of the permanent residents in the oases were paid to do this, usually
in kind when the dates were harvested.
Tribesmen who own, organise and operate a number of different
economic means which secure their livelihood are a common
phenomenon of all the eastern Arabian tribal societies. Many who
live near the mountains have dale gardens as well as camels and
herds of goat; some of the fishermen of the east coast also lend their
own date gardens; some camel-breeders such as the A1 Bu Khail of
the Manaslr have gardens, engage in the carrying trade, and sell
firewood and charcoal.
In the Buraimi oasis and the northern Trucial Slates there were
few individuals who were involved in more than two of the
traditional occupations in the same way as most Bani Yas. The
population living in the vicinity of the mountains did not have the
same egalitarian participation in all the available economic resources
of the country, because where arable land is scarce and supplies of
water are limited the structure of society is such that there is a
contest for the ownership of these resources, and a wage-earning
class is required as labour.2

Occupational specialisation in Abu Dhabi

The impact of the pearl boom
The communities of versatile tribesmen, all sharing a frugal way of
life, which were characteristic of the shaikhdom of Abu Dhabi,
became more structured by specialisation towards the end of the
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