Evolution of Middle Eastern Social Structures: a new model

The desert is small relative to the growth of population, leading to endemic warfare over territory and to the expulsion of weaker groups. However, camels have relatively low fertility rates in the face of recurrent drought, so that maintenance of balanced ratios of camels requires the raiding of camels by those who are militarily strong and the expulsion of the weak from the desert. Given the inadequacy of natural increase to preserve the sufficiency of herds, the sizes of herds are determined by the actions of men as raiders and as defenders of herds. Men, however, are the products of the fertility of women, and hence the fertility of women acts as the critical wealthasset underlying possession of herds and the survival of agnatic groups. Like marriage practices almost everywhere, marriages among the Somali carry the ethos of the successful and the powerful, the powerful being those whose sons are so successful in raiding that a sufficiency in camels is assured. In the context of such sufficiency additional camels are reduced to the level of consumption goods, into which they are transformed, rather than becoming part of the herd as wealth. This being the case, the camels of the strong, and of the many who would mimic them, fail as exchange equivalence against the fertility of women. Hence, groups will tend to avoid offering women to other groups, if endogamy is permissible. The responsibility of kin to facilitate endogamy falls to the brother’s son in the form of a right. Given the son’s role in warfare and raiding, he is a man of honor whose responsibility must be culturally configured as an act of honor. For non-Bedouin camel herders, such as the Somali, and the Afar, an exchange of a daughter’s fertility for camels is also largely avoided. However, endogamy is not permissible and these groups must find a different solution to the same problem. Duran Bell Professor of Anthropology and Professor of Economics University of California, Irvine 3151 Social Science Plaza Irvine, California, 92697