Informal Social Control of the Desert: Falconers of Qatar

Hunting using falcons, an activity referred to as Falconary, is a popular sport among the native Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula. It consists of simply training a wild falcon that is usually brought by merchandisers from Persia, Egypt, or as far as Serbia, to be able to hunt down migrating birds during the winter season. It is a sport that is usually affiliated with manhood and pride within its lovers, and with that comes the culture of falconers.

Social control can be both formal and informal. It can be the laws and regulations written in the books or social values and beliefs that a certain society have. Murder and theft are considered crimes because they are written in law as deviances that must be punished for. However, disrespecting your elders is an informal social deviant, yet a person will not be necessarily punished for doing so.

Within the falconers there are many informal rules that has been around for a long time, and that set the boundaries of norms of the hobby. For example, when hunting, a hunter can claim the prey bird before he even finds it. This is true when a hunter finds the signs of footprints of the prey bird in the desert, and therefore gets clear evidence that there is a bird he can hunt near by. When that happened the prey “belongs” to the person who first saw the footprint, and when the bird is finally been seen, he has the saying on what to do with it.

Hunters positively sanction those who obey such desert rules. For example, last week my brother found a bird named Kurwan in the Southern desert of Doha. However, after a few minutes a car drove to him and he was told that the Kurwan does not belong to him because another hunter was tracking the footprints since the morning. Therefore, my brother accepted to give back the prey to its rightly hunter. By doing so, he got a positive sanction when the other hunters came and asked him to join them for dinner that night as a gesture of respect to his generosity.

Bedouin Culture - The Modern Version

Bedouins have existed for over 1000 years, however over time the exact meaning of Bedouin changed. According to the dictionary they're described as wanderers or rovers, basically people who don't live in a specific place and instead move around depending on the resources available in the place. This may have been true before when they'd change an area once the food was running out or other factors that may make living there harder. However, with all the changes that have happened in the past 60 years or so that has changed. Most Bedouin tribes now live at a set place, in homes just like us. Therefore, some may say Bedouins are no more. However, that is far from true as being a Bedouin is more than what the dictionary makes it out to be Bedouins have their own culture with their own sets of norms, beliefs and traditions. That is what defines them and not whether they wander or migrate.

Bedouins are a prominent group in Qatar and most of the Arab world, including Palestine/Israel, Most of these Bedouins have the same norms, beliefs and traditions. For example, tribes are still very important in Bedouin culture, and the relationships between these tribes can be good or bad depending on the history. For example, if two tribes are not in good terms with one another it is taboo for a women from one tribe to marry a man from the other tribe. On the other hand, a more would be if two tribes have a good relationship and if a man from one tribe is looking to get engaged to a women from the other tribe, to reject that man is seen as an insult and tribal relationship will turn from good to bad instantly.

Whats most interesting is how Bedouins kept their culture intact while still accepting the change that comes from the outside. For example, Bedouins used to live in tents, however, in order to better their living conditions they now live in houses but keep the tent feel to it by keeping the design inside similar to that of a tent or in some cases include a chimney. Another interesting thing is how they've kept their foods the same as they have been in the past. The foods and remedies they would take from the desert, because it was the only thing available, is still what they mostly eat, outside of the weekend McDonalds or KFC. These foods include

camel milk, a kind of truffle called Fagah ( فقع), camel and sheep meat and arabic coffee and if possible all prepared on a fire like the one above. Bedouins have not strayed too far from the desert. On any free day, with no work, they are always at the desert in their tents.

Bedouins, have many traditions and sports that they take part in. Football (soccer) is one however the traditional ones are hunting, with falcons and dogs, and searching for Fagah.

Hunting is a very popular sport and people take pride in having a well trained falcon or dog. Having one's own falcon or dog is a rite of passage for young guys almost as important as getting their first Nintendo. While hunting, in the past people would follow them on camels or on foot, now however each person is equipped with a Land Cruiser to follow the dogs and falcons.

Meanwhile, searching for Fagah, while done by the whole family, is seen as a form of competition for kids. Who can find the biggest one. these two sports like many Bedouin traditions have diffused into Qatari culture as even I remember competing with my cousins on who could find the biggest Fagah or going hunting with my Father.

Interestingly, the biggest change is the use of the camel. The camel, called the ship of the desert in arabic, is what helped people live in the desert before. It provided transportation and food. However, transportation has now shifted from the old ship of the desert to the new ship of the desert, the Land Cruiser. Land Cruisers are a must have in the Bedouin Culture as it provides easy, safe transport through the desert and is much faster than a camel.

In conclusion, Bedouin Culture is a very dominant culture in the Arab world, even diffusing into the country's culture, while the world has changed and Bedouin life has evolved with it, the core beliefs, norms and traditions have stayed the same.