Page 24 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

Arabian Studies IV
14
the A1 Balush;1* only few of the| villa8««’ ™atfodyHttte
owned by the Bant Q"ab, ‘ iff This animosity, though
social interaction between the tw gr P gf lrjba, loyaities

central Zerlent, still serves as a deterrent discouraging some
IqtabI families from settling in the immediate vicinity of a
SubaykhT. But for this, their scdcntansation might have come
about even more quickly. Nevertheless, these erstwhile semi-
nomads are building more permanent structures, both adjacent to
the village, and dispersed in the Jufrah: the last vestiges of their
mobile life-style are disappearing.
The Ban! Qitab themselves see these changes which have been
outlined, as entirely desirable, and unquestionably amounting to
admirable progress.19 They point to their Land Rovers, cars, radios,
new clothes, pots and other consumer goods which they now' own,
and declare that times have never been better. Their cash incomes
are large; their womenfolk now wear gold rather than silver
jewellery; they no longer have periods of seasonal hunger, and eat,
they claim, a superior and more varied diet. They do, of course,
have moments of nostalgia, especially some of the older people:
they are aware of the decline in the numbers of their livestock and
how this means, in traditional terms, that their status has fallen.
But they realise that many other nomadic groups in south east
Arabia have fewer animals too, and say, ‘We used to have camels
and goats, but now we have oil’, alluding to the degree to w'hich
their status has risen within the new order.
In spite of the men’s broadened horizons they see, almost
without exception, the Wadi Jufrah as remaining their home. Their
constant attachment to their area of grazing lands is both effected
and symbolised by their womenfolk’s remaining at home;20
although the majority of adult men have worked away, few women
have ever travelled to their men’s places of work, and some have
not even left the Jufrah.21 All the migrant labourers wished
eventually to settle in the Wadi when their children are old enough
o support them. However, most expected, rather naively, that
conditions in the Jufrah area would by then be ‘greatly improved’,
presumably by generous (quite unrealistically generous) central
government infrastructure provision. '
ni1,Cn;,i.\ll!C,firM of thc unfortunate aspects of the development of
of fh,. //.1 f' exP*c!a,ion* ()f growth and progress at home, and
S„li'in ./ Cf it Prov,won services by the Government of the
* tanate of Oman are being raised unrealistically by the experien-