Page 29 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

Development or Decline of Pastoralists 19
16. Some of the BanI Qitab wells in al-$ubaykhl area have recently
been fitted with medium-life pumps, not in order to irrigate for farming,
but simply to raise drinking water. This is an example of the wealth of the
BanI Qitab that derives from remittances.
17. Although some of the villagers’ goats are tended by a few BanI
Qitab families, such agreements arc by no means as common in al-
Subaykhl as they are between the settled (ftatfr) and shawawl families
elsewhere.
18. For example, elsewhere intermarriage between the villagers and
local pastoralists is not unusual (see the ‘Place of Birth Data’ in the
forthcoming Durham Oman Project Reports), but there are few instances
of this happening between the fradr and shawawiyah of al-$ubaykhl. This
is especially surprising in view of the mix of tribes here referred to under
the umbrella term ‘BanI Qitab’.
19. See also Cole, D. P., 1975, Nomads of the Nomads, Chicago, where
he describes similar attitudes among the A1 Murrah.
20. Cole, 1975, also discusses the significance of the women staying
behind when men leave home with reference to the A1 Murrah.
21. Birks, J. S., 1977, ‘Aspects of Population Mobility amongst a Rural
Arab Population’, paper read at the Congress of the Institute of British
Geographers, Newcastle, January, gives examples of the different patterns
of geographical mobility of men and women.
22. See Middle Eastern Economic Development, special issue on
Oman, 1976, and the Statistical Yearbooks, Sultanate of Oman, annually
from 1972/3.
23. See, for example, essays in: Safa, H. I., and B. M. Du Toit (eds.)
1975, Migration and Development: Implications for Ethnic Identity and
Political Conflict, The Hague.
24. Mitchell, J. C., 1961, ‘Wage Labour and African Population
Movements in Central Africa’, in Barbour, K. M., and R. M. Prothero,
(eds.), Essays on African Population, London.
25. Undoubtedly, the first group to suffer would be the Asian labour
which has moved to the Gulf.
26. Already in some of the Gulf countries, Omanis feel the need to
masquerade under false nationality (even to the degree of creating
imaginary family links) in order to avoid what they consider to be
discrimination against them, and to benefit to the full from residence in
their place of work.
27. Some present-day Duru‘ youths, sons of some of the most famous
camel breeders in south east Arabia, cannot even ride a camel properly,
and do not wish to learn. Once having moved across an ethnic boundary,
by becoming sedentary families with absentee household heads, it
becomes difficult to move back again. The desires and pressures which
cause members of the sedentary Fur to become nomadic pastoralists are
not present in this situation. See Haaland, G., 1969, ‘Economic Deter­
minants in Ethnic Processes’, 58-76 in Barth, F. (ed.), Ethnic Groups and
Boundaries, London.