Human, Society & Environmen Lab

This article deals with Bedouin society in the Negev, which is positioned on Israel’s social, economic, and geographic margins. Using Bourdieu’s field theory, it examines the three main fields in which Bedouin society is active: tribalism, religion, and state. It then demonstrates the dynamic between the fields in the tension between preservation and change by analyzing four issues: higher education, polygamy, the call of the muezzin, and police stations. The principal findings indicate that tribal norms currently determine much of Bedouin society’s way of life. At the same time, in recent decades, the force of religion has increased significantly. Together with religion, the influence of the state has become stronger and is challenging tribal rules, and even to some extent the religion field. Nevertheless, to date, the force of the other two fields outweighs the state’s influence. The field theory enables a new analysis of the forces operating in Bedouin society, and allows a better understanding of its complexity.