Neo-Polygamous Activity among the Bedouin of the Negev, Israel: Dysfunction, Adaptation-Or Both?1

INTRODUCTIONThe forced sedentarization of nomadic peoples across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has long been documented and presented as one of many outcomes of the postcolonization process just preceding and following World War II. Nation-building in the postcolonial period was (and is) demarcated by efforts on the part of virtually every state in the region to actively control territory, re-making, altering, and disrupting indigenous flows, seeking to re-boundary space. Concomitantly, such state initiatives sought to "dis- [O] rient " (Dinero, 2009) the domestic sphere; that is, to control and re-direct the social interactions and spaces of those residing within their newly-boundaried territories just as they sought to manipulate economic and political spaces.In the case of the Israeli State's longstanding policy to forcibly settle its Muslim Arab bedouin citizens of the Negev Desert in a process of "de-bedouinization" and "deArabization," such efforts have met with considerable social resistance. Indeed, rather than to fully assimilate or accept or follow State demands upon resettlement, the bedouin have revealed signs of considerable social adaptation and malleability. Such resistance may best be understood within a context of contested gendered space, in which polygyny and other indigenous behaviors (see, for ex., Boddy, 2007; MacLeod, 1 99 1) are performed for reasons which extend beyond socially defined rationale. As I have noted previously (Dinero, 20 1 0, p. 139), "[the Negev bedouin] are behaving in ways which solidify [their connections to Arabs outside of Israel]; mosque attendance, polygyny, veiling in full hi] ab and niqab ..., and omra and ha] participation have all increased substantially over the past decade as the bedouin feel a sense of identity and affinity with the greater Muslim world - and, incidentally, have the ability because of access to global media (El-Jazeera, El-Arabiyya) and improved relations with the Arab states to interact with neighboring Muslim communities who themselves now espouse a sense of heightened Muslim awareness." Most if not all of these developments may be viewed as the outcomes of exogenous change fostered by the resettlement initiative.Indeed, historically prior to resettlement and the age of globalization, such behaviors and practices as polygyny were considerably limited within the Negev bedouin community. According to a small survey conducted in the early 1960s, for example, only 7.5% of men in the study were identified as polygynous. Marx contends that while "all Bedouin desire[d] polygynous marriages," (1967, p. 139) the practice was found primarily among wealthy sheikhs during the 1950s and 1960s; very few ordinary bedouin families, even those of "True" noble Arab heritage, were polygynous.And yet, as small as this percentage may appear to be, the State did not view it as such. In 1951 soon after Israel's independence, it implemented Article 176 of the Penal Code. As a result, polygyny was made a felony punishable by 5 years in jail. Then (as now), however, such a prohibition "had little effect on Bedouin marriage patterns" (Marx, 1967, p. 139n). Three-quarters of all Negev bedouin marriages took place between spouses from different "corporate groups," that is, they occurred with women taken from outside of the immediate tribe, "in order to serve political or economic interests" (Marx, 1987, p. 168). That said, cowives were, nonetheless, members of the Negev bedouin community. As such, divorce was exceptionally "rare" (p. 168), with rates just under 4% (p. 174). The domestic sphere, for the most part, was considerably stable during this period.Marx's landmark research was undertaken just prior to two major changes in the development of the bedouin community that would have a major impact upon polygynous behavior, one acting as a logistical agent, while the other served as its primary motivational force. The first major event was the development of permanent planned towns, starting with the creation of Tel Sheva, in 1966. …