Moscow University
Anthropology
Bulletin
Anthropology
Bulletin
1) Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Mokhovaya st., 11, Moscow, 125009, Russia; 2) Human Population Biology Research Unit, Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel
Chumakova A.M., e-mail: achumakova@mail.ru; Kobyliansky Eugene, Ph.D., e-mail: anatom14@post.tau.ac.il
Introduction. Bedouin population of southern Sinai, endogamous nomadic group with signs of isolates, traditional archaic structure of the community, living in a homogeneous, unchanging over the centuries, and quite a harsh environment, represents a unique model group for studying the role of ge-netic and environmental factors. Report presents the results of genetic and demographic study of several Bedouin groups based on a multidisciplinary anthropological expedition of Tel Aviv University, who worked in the years 1979–1982 in the South of the Sinai Peninsula. Materials and Methods. Used an adult sample (age 16+), numbering about 600 people and in-cluding 106 female individuals. To establish the degree of relationship between parents, the reconstruc-tion of genealogies were conducted more than 600 respondents, clarification on family ties received with the aid of parishional elders, sheikhs. Inbreeding coefficient calculated by applying Wright’s path analy-sis. Results.This article contains information on the colonization history of Sinai, tribal Bedouin’s structure, as well as demographic characteristics. Based on the study of history, demography, migration and social structure of the South Sinai Bedouin tribes research educed that tribal bonds were formed primarily on the sociopolitical level, not at the level of kinship. Bedouin tribes who migrated to South Si-nai to the Arabian Peninsula for over 1000 years ago, characterized by high levels of endogamy (97% of marriages within the tribe, 14.6% marriages between first cousins). The recorded value of the endogamy rate exceeds values for other human populations. On average, 15% of families in Towara superstructure were polygynous, their number was inversely proportional to the size of a particular tribe. Fertility in these families was lower than in monogamous unions, that is consistent, in particular, with data on the Bedouins of North Arabia. The sex ratio in the Bedouin population changes in the direction of increasing the male population at older ages. It creates the impression of a somewhat larger average male life ex-pectancy, which may be explained by the less harmful effect for men of extreme hardships of nomadic and semi-nomadic subsistence – the softer sex does not withstand shortages of food and basic health care.
anthropology, Bedouins of Southern Sinai, demography, fertility, polygyny, endogamy
Цит.: Chumakova A.M., Kobyliansky E. The Bedouins of the South Sinai Peninsula: the genetic and demographic aspects (based on an an-thropological expedition of 1979–1982) // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2012; 3/2012; с. 72-84
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