Editing Bedouin (section)

== Society ==
A widely quoted Bedouin statement is "I am against my brother, my brother and I are against my cousin, my cousin and I are against the stranger"<ref>{{cite book |first=Emanuel|last=Marx|editor1-last=Weissleder|editor1-first=Wolfgang |title=The Nomadic alternative: Modes and models of interaction in the African-Asian deserts and steppes |publisher=Moulton|isbn=978-0202900537|page=59|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JRyqfpi5BKcC&q=My+brother+and+Ime+against+my+cousin,+and+my+cousin+and+Ime+against+the+stranger.%22&pg=PA59|access-date=23 November 2016|chapter=Ecology and politics of Middle Eastern politics|year=1978}}</ref> sometimes quoted as "I and my brother are against my cousin, I and my cousin are against the stranger."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Naguib|first1=Nefissa |title=Women, Water and Memory: Recasting Lives in Palestine |date=2009 |publisher=Brill|isbn=978-9004167780|page=79 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pb4pvVeLfyIC&q=My+brother+and+Ime+against+my+cousin,+and+my+cousin+and+Ime+against+the+stranger.%22&pg=PA79|access-date=23 November 2016}}</ref> This saying signifies a hierarchy of loyalties based on the proximity of some person to oneself, beginning with the [[self]], and proceeding through the [[nuclear family]] as defined by male kinship, and then, in principle at least, to an entire genetic or linguistic group (which is perceived as akin to kinship in the Middle East and North Africa generally). Disputes are settled, interests are pursued, and justice and order are dispensed and maintained by means of this framework, organized according to an ethic of self-help and collective responsibility (Andersen 14). The individual family unit (referred to as a tent or ''{{transliteration|ar|DIN|bayt}}'') usually traditionally comprised three or four adults (a married couple plus siblings or parents) and any number of children.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jarzombek|first1=Mark M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DuevAwAAQBAJ&dq=individual+family+unit+%22tent%22+%22bedouin%22&pg=SA12-PA78|title=Architecture of First Societies: A Global Perspective|publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]]|pages=12–78|isbn=9781118421055|date=27 May 2014}}</ref>

The Bedouins' ethos comprises courage, hospitality, loyalty to family and pride of ancestry. Bedouin tribes were not controlled by a central power, like a government or empire, but rather were led by tribal chiefs. Some chiefs exercised their power from oases, where merchants would organise trade through the territory controlled by the tribe. The structure of Bedouin tribes were held together more so by shared feelings of common ancestry rather than a tribal chief atop the hierarchy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hourani |first1=Albert |title=A History of the Arab Peoples |date=2013 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |isbn=9780571288014 |pages=10–11}}</ref>[[File:A Bedouin girl in Nuweiba - Egypt.jpg|thumb|A Bedouin girl in [[Nuweiba]], Egypt (2015)]]Bedouin traditionally had strong honor codes, and traditional systems of justice dispensation in Bedouin society typically revolved around such codes. The ''[[bisha'a]]'', or ordeal by fire, is a well-known Bedouin practice of [[lie detection]]. See also: [[Honor codes of the Bedouin]], [[Bedouin systems of justice]].