Jordan

Settlement and Loss of the Nomads

Settlement began after World War I and accelerated after the mid-1950s as the state consolidated, defining national borders that disrupted the nomads' access to traditional lands and water and that established armies that took nomads from their homes. Private title to land and education were part of the sedentary life, as were access to water and medical care provided by the state. By the early 1970s, Bedouins made up five percent of the population, and by the late 1970s, they made up three percent.

The loss of the nomads did not mean the destruction of the tribes. Social and political leadership has changed as government officials have taken over the functions of the sheikh. By the 1980s, the Hashemite kings could no longer take the Bedouins for granted, and the sheikhs could no longer guarantee tribal loyalty as extended families. Smaller groups became more important to Jordanians than traditional tribes. By the late 1980s, family size was shrinking as women were more important to the two-income household. The large farm family was a thing of the past. Urban women since the 1960s have been increasingly active outside the home, with girls' school enrollment by the 1980s nearly that of boys, and women increasingly common in the workplace. Women students were still unlikely to socialize with friends in the evenings.

Family ties weakened, particularly among the better educated, as the individual became more important than the kinship group, as had been the case traditionally. Newly married couples established their own household rather than moving in with the parents. Labor migration weakened family ties too—if the husband saw the wife and children only once or twice a year, then the wife and children were less reliant on him as head of the household. Women were more autonomous with increasing responsibility, and they are more likely to live away from either set of relatives than had been the case. Those families who live with the husband's extended family are under that family's authority, not that of the father. And children growing up with absent fathers are less comfortable giving him the traditional deference.

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