Page 27 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

Development or Decline of Pastoralists 17
resources for a role as a marginal supplier of labour. Both old and
new positions court risks, the former because of the vagaries of
physical factors, the latter because of the possibilities of economic
luctuations. The Ban! Qitab would perhaps have been best served
?y a combination of old and new orders, cash incomes from
migrant labouring augmenting, but not replacing, income from
pastoral pursuits, so that variations in one sector could be
compensated for by manipulation of the other. The virtually
complete erosion of the pastoral aspects of Ban! Qitab life has
made this balance difficult to achieve. However, unless remittances
can be channelled into investment in productive enterprise in their
home area, making the BanI Qitab less dependent on employment
outside Oman, it will become increasingly likely that the
population of the Jufrah will pass into conditions of economic and
social decline.

Notes and References

The fieldwork upon which this article is based was undertaken while the
author was Research Fellow in the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, the
University of Durham. Acknowledgement is due to Petroleum Develop­
ment (Oman) Ltd., who funded the Durham University Oman Research
Project, and to Mrs. Anne Harris for typing.
1. See, for example, the essays collected in Nelson, C. (ed.), 1973, The
Desert and the Sown: nomads in a wider society, Institute of International
Studies, Research Series, No. 21, University of California, Berkeley; and
Monod, T. (ed.), 1975, Pastoralism in Tropical Africa, Studies presented
and discussed at the Xlllth International African Seminar, Niamey,
December 1972. London.
2. Abou-Zeid, A., 1959, ‘Sedentarization of Nomads in the Western
Desert of Egypt’, International Social Science Journal, XI, 550-8; Op’t
Land, CA., 1961, The permanent settlements of the Dachte Moghan Area.
Problems around the sedentarization of pastoral tribes, Institute of Social
Studies and Research, University of Tehran; Alwan, A. S., 1968,
‘Socio-economic issues of nomads’ settlements in the western districts of
the U.A.R.’, Land Reform, Land Settlement and Co-operation, F.A.O.,
Rome, 1, 28-35.
3. Dir, plural diran, dawir, etc., is here taken to mean tribal territory;
generally that area over which a tribal group has traditionally held sway,
and over which the pastoralists have grazing rights. For a more extensive
discussion of the term see Carter, J., Tribalism in Oman (in press), and
Wilkinson, J. C., 1971, ‘Arab settlement in Oman: The origins and
development of the tribal pattern and its relationship to the Imamate’.
Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Oxford.
4. These families are those who use or did use the Wadi Jufrah