Avinoam Meir

International Borders and Range Ecology: The Case of Bedouin Transborder Grazing

Recent research suggests that, under unconstrained human circumstances, pastoral nomads within arid environments have at their disposal means of evading ecological stress that could impel them to cause damage to their grazing and land resources. The Israeli-Egyptian border has imposed a severe constraint upon the range management strategy of the Bedouin whose traditional territory it bisects. The border forced them to exert an increased pressure upon local resources. Considerable damage was thus caused to the perennial vegetation cover (both macrophytes and microphytes) and to the structure of sand dunes on the Egyptian side of the border, with opposite effects on the Israeli side to which the Bedouin had no access. This case study adds a further dimension to the discussion of range management by pastoral nomads in arid and semi-arid areas.

Nomads and the state: the spatial dynamics of centrifugal and centripetal forces among the Israeli Negev Bedouin

Abstract Only seldom can pastoral nomads and state governments reach an agreement over locational issues and resource utilization. While governments attempt to impose their control over nomads, the latter wish to avoid it by all means. The opposing forces stem from conflicting ideologies and opposing forms of space production. They thus create a spatial struggle arena in which centripetal (the state) and centrifugal (nomads) spatial forces operate. The ongoing dialectic between these forces creates a unique spatial organization pattern manifested at each phase along the nomadism-sedentarism continuum and at all socio-spatial resolution levels. In this paper the above framework is examined with the Israeli Negev Bedouin as a case study throughout the recent century from the Ottoman Empire, through the British Mandate to the state of Israel. In each period the centripetal force, through various administrative and ‘development’ measures and policies Stands against socio-political processes within the Bedouin society which feed the centrifugal force. Generally, one may expect the centripetal force to overcome the centrifugal one, thus affecting the locational structure of the Bedouin. However, a closer examination of the micro scale reveals that their centripetal force is still applied rather forcefully, especially during the present process of semi-urbanization. That is, the spatial centripetal force does not lose its strength but rather becomes encapsulated within a different spatial framework. The conflictual process also becomes functional as structural economic issues are introduced into the spatial arena.

Demographic transition theory: a neglected aspect of the nomadism-sedentarism continuum.

This paper proposes an adaptation of demographic transition theory to the nomadism-sedentarism continuum. It is argued that a change along this continuum implies a change in the mode of production, which in turn entails changes in fertility and mortality. The following hypotheses are set forth: 1) at the pastoral phase of a nomadic society, fertility is relatively low and mortality is relatively high, yielding a low rate of natural increase; 2) as a pastoral nomadic society senentarizes, fertility begins to rise and mortality falls, resulting in a sharp rise in natural increase, but as sedentarization becomes more advanced, both these trends slow down somewhat; 3) as the nomadic society becomes fully sedentarized, there is a period in which fertility remains at a high level but then begins to fall slowly, whereas mortality, after reaching a temporary minimum, exhibits a minor increase followed by a resumption of a declining trend; and 4) in the postsedentarization phase, the demographic regime of the ex-nomads becomes similar to the 2nd and 3rd stages of the original demographic transition theory, with a slowdown of the decline in mortality, followed by a later slowdown of fertility and of the rate of natural increase. The hypothesis of rising fertility among sedentarizing nomads is related to both social modernization and economic growth and development, including an improved standard of living and public health services. The interrelated processes of general societal responses to population growth and the changing role of children in the family are assumed to account for the eventual fertility decline. Data from several countries, including a case history from Israel, suggest that birth rates increase along the continuum but their decline at postsedentarization will depend on trends in the general rural sector. Natural increase rates of sedentarizing nomads are considerably higher than those of pastoral nomads. It is concluded that this approach may fill a gap in demographic transition theory and provide a conceptual framework for future studies.

Comparative Vital Statistics Along the Pastoral Nomadism-Sedentarism Continuum

Vital statistics on pastoral nomadic and sedentarizing nomadic societies are by-and-large non-existent. Such information is highly important for both academic and policy-making reasons as pastoral nomadism as a mode of life is disappearing. This paper attempts to gather and present as much information as possible on crude birth and death rates and natural increase rates for various pastoral nomadic societies in different African and Middle Eastern countries. The information is arranged by a subdivision into nomads, seminomads, and sedentarized nomads. A summarization of this information suggests a possible pattern by which birth rates rise, death rates fall (but may rise in certain circumstances), and natural increase rates rise along the nomadism-sedentarism continuum. Such a possible pattern has several policy implications for governments assessing the needs of a nomadic society undergoing a process of change in its socio-ecological relationships.

Pastoral Nomads and the Dialectics of Development and Modernization: Delivering Public Educational Services to the Israeli Negev Bedouin

Pastoral nomads in Africa and the Middle East have recently come under intensifying contacts with governments through processes of sedentarization and social modernization. The dialectics of these processes have the capacity to make nomads dependent upon public goods, thus equipping governments with manipulative tools to bring nomads under political control. A major tool in this regard has been the delivery of public educational services. This paper is an attempt first to provide a theoretical framework of the spatial, social, and cultural manipulation of pastoral nomads through the process of delivering educational services. The case is then examined of delivering these services to the Israeli Negev Bedouin who, unlike other nomadic societies, have been undergoing processes of sedentarization and social modernization within a modern Jewish state.

NOMADS, DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH: DELIVERING PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICES TO THE BEDOUIN IN ISRAEL**

Provision of public health services to pastoral nomadic societies has been a difficult task for governments. Is- sues of availability, accessibility, and compatibility of these ser- vices to nomads have in recent years become important in de- bates on development of these societies. Such issues become reinforced when nomads sedentarize and undergo processes of social modernization. Sedentarization of the Israeli Bedouin, al- though exposing them to a modern health care system, has given only partial answers to the issues of availability and spatial, func- tional, and cultural accessibility and compatibility of health ser- vices. Misconception of the primary health care (PHC) concept by service providers has resulted in lack of culturally appropriate intermediate medical technology and administration, and defi- cient health and health-related educational efforts. Con- sequently, socially and culturally service-related welfare for the Bedouin, an objective highly important in an intermediate mod- ernization phase, has not been achieved.

Demographic transition among the Negev Beduin in Israel and its planning implications.

Abstract The sedentarization of Beduin in Israel made it necessary for the authorities to channel the process into planned semi-urbanization. A forecast of future Beduin population size, however, did not consider the demographic transition and response theories within the process of change among the nomads. The present study demonstrates that the Beduin underwent a process of fertility increase before fertility decline, both of which were preceded by the process of mortality decline between the mid-1950s and the late-1970s. While mortality decline and fertility increase were the outcomes of economic growth, fertility decline is the outcome of social modernization. Both processes lead to decline in population growth rate. This reinterpretation of demographic processes has important implications for planning towns for the Beduin society in terms of improvement in their social well-being on their path from nomadism to semi-urbanization.

Provision of Public Services to the Post-Nomadic Bedouin Society in Israel

Bedouin nomads in southern Israel have been sedentarising and semi-urbanising in recent decades. During this process, they have become part of a public service provision system. This is a unique process as usually nomads rely on internal resources for attaining the goals of these services, whereas here they are obliged to use external resources. Such a process, therefore, is bound to be a conflictual one with many barriers. An analysis of provision of public educational and health services reveals that they have been spatially, functionally and culturally constrained, thus putting the Bedouin within a stressful situation.

The production of space: a neglected perspective in pastoral research

This paper offers an overview of the dispersed elements of social spatiality present in the rich work about pastoralists and their space, and brings them together under the conceptual framework of Lefebvres production of space. The three facets of pastorally produced space are outlined: ‘perceived space’, low-intensity spatial footprints linked by seasonal migratory trails; ‘conceived space’, social territoriality and agrarian socialism; and ‘lived space’, ideologies of spatial attachment that transcend a particular place. Based on this framework, we discuss and illustrate with case studies the relational aspects between pastoral economic, cultural, and political structures and their spatiality. We suggest that such an engagement highlights the reciprocal constitutive interaction between space and society and the coherent nature of the production of pastoral space. We argue that the extent to which pastoral spatial coherence can be maintained in the face of pressures from other, rival, and often more powerful spatialities is paramount to the sustainability of pastoralist existence.

Innovation diffusion and regional economic development: The spatial diffusion of automobiles in Ohio

Meir A. (1981) Innovation diffusion and regional economic development: the spatial diffusion of automobiles in Ohio, Reg. Studies 15, 111–122. Regional development is considered both as a prerequisite for, and an outcome of, a growth-inducing innovation diffusion process. Regional prerequisites are divided into internal ones, signifying degree of economic development, and external ones, signifying degree of exposure to information about the innovation. The diffusion process changes the spatial distribution of these prerequisites, which then act as prerequisites for future diffusion of innovations. Such changes relate primarily to the concentration of population and income among higher urban hierarchical levels. The automobile as a growth-inducing innovation has diffused in Ohio subject primarily to the internal prerequisites (such as household income, automobile diffusion agencies and, to a certain degree, road quality). Those areas whose initial adoption rates were higher also exhibit higher population a...