Mobility along Socio-cultural Borders
Brisk-walking in Bedouin Towns
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64166/a5km0s10Keywords:
Bedouin, brisk-walking, socio-cultural borders, urbanity, constructing mobile third-place, borrowing spaceAbstract
Substantial changes in contemporary Bedouin society are reflected in the rise of 'affluence morbidities' which suggest that there is an increasing need to engage in physical activity. Brisk-walking, recently practiced by several dozen residents in the Bedouin towns of Hura and Tel-Sheva reflects the adoption of a new lifestyle that has generated tension when practiced in the public sphere. Based on the qualitative methodology of in-depth interviews and walking participation events, this paper presents both the pioneering brisk-walker's experience and the tensions that have arisen between this activity and the cultural, behavioral and performance constraints that shape Bedouin current urbanity. Taking a space and place approach, the 'legitimate spaces' of brisk-walking are outlined vis-a-vis gender, tribal affiliation, inter-group relationships and the meanings of the preferred type of space for brisk-walking– within the town, in its outlying spaces or in the neighboring Jewish suburbs. In understanding leisure walking spaces as a field of socio-cultural and spatial negotiation within the context of mobile/immobile spaces, the manner in which this unique and complex mobility experience affects walker's sense of place is interpreted.
References
Al-A'asam, M. (2010) Sport Coordinator in Tel-Sheva, PC (personal communication), Tel-Sheva, January.
Abbott, R.D., White, L.R., Ross, G.W., Masaki, K.H., Curb, J.D & Petrovitch, H. (2004) Walking and Dementia in Physically Capable Elderly Men. JAMA, 292 (12), 1447-1453.
Abu-Bader, S. & Gradus, Y. (2010) (Eds.) The Negev Bedouin Statistical Data Book. Beer-Sheva: The Robert Arnow Centre for Bedouin Studies and Development, The Negev Centre for regional Development.
Abu el-Qian, H. (2010) Sport Coordinator in Hura, PC (personal communication), Hura, July.
Abu-Rabia-Queder, S. (2007) Permission to rebel: Arab Bedouin women’s changing negotiation of social roles. Feminist Studies, 33 (1), 161-187.
Abu-Rabia, S. (2013) "We are strangers on our land": The geography of self and place identity among Bedouin-Arab of the Negev. In: Karplus, Y. & Meir, A. The Production of Bedouin Space in the Negev. Beer Sheva, The Negev Centre for Regional Development. (Hebrew)
Abu-Rabia, Y. (2010) Rahat clinic administrator, the first Bedouin doctor in the Negev, PC, (Personal Communication), Beer-Sheva, January.
Abu-Rabia-Queder, S. & Karplus, Y. (2013) Regendering space and reconstructing identity: Bedouin women’s translocal mobility into Israeli-Jewish institutions of higher education. Gender, Place and Culture - A Journal of Feminist Geography, 20, 4, 470-486.
Abu-Rabia, Y. & Weitzman, S. (2002) Diabetes among Bedouins in the Negev: The transition from a rare to a highly prevalent condition. IMAJ, The Israel Medical Association Journal, 4, 687-689.
Abu-Saad, I. & Lithwick, H. (2000) A way ahead, a development plan for the Bedouin towns in the Negev. Beer –Sheva: The center for Bedouin Studies and Development, The Negev center for regional development, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. (Henrew)
Abu-Saad, K., Horowitz, T & Abu-Saad, I. (2007) Weaving Tradition and Modernity, Bedouin Women in Higher Education. Beer Sheva: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. (Hebrew)
Abu-Saad, K., Weitzman, S., Abu-Rabiah, Y., Abu-Shareb, H., & Fraser, D. (2001) Rapid lifestyle, diet and health changes among urban Bedouin Arabs of southern Israel. Food, Nutrition and Agriculture, 28, 45-52.
Amato, J. (2004) On Foot: a History of Walking. New York: New York University Press.
Atkinson, R. (2003) Domestication by Cappuccino or a Revenge on Urban Space? Control and Empowerment in the Management of Public Spaces. Urban Studies, 40, (9), 1829–1843.
Avrahami, S. (2001) The In-depth Interview. Hevra Verevaha (Society and welfare) 21, 311-325. (Hebrew)
Basso, K. (1996) Wisdom Sites in Places: Landscape and Language among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New-Mexico Press.
Ben-David, Y. (1994) Adaptation during crises: Socio-cultural aspects of the urbanization of the Negev Bedouin. In Grossman, D.& Meir, A. (Eds.), The Arab Settlement in Israel: Geographic Process. Jerusalem: Magness. (Hebrew)
-----. (2004) The Bedouin in Israel, a Socio-cultural dimension. Jerusalem: The Ben-Shemesh Institution for Land-use Research in Israel. (Hebrew)
Ben-Israel. A. (2009) The construction of the Bedouin Place: Landscape and Space of Urbanized Pastoral-Nomads, the Case of Hura-Atir Region. PhD Diss. The Department of Geography and Environmental Development, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. (Hebrew)
Ben-Israel, A & Meir, A. (2010) Constructing road as a place, the case of the Bedouin of Hura-Yatir. Geography, Knowledge and Society, The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) Annual International Conference, Manchester, August.
Berrigan, D. and Troiano, R. P (2002) The association between urban form and physical activity in U.S. adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 23 (2), 74-79.
Berry, R. S. K. (1999) Collecting data by in-Depth interviewing. www.129.11.5.57/educat/docoments/000001172.htm.
Biddle, S. J. H., & Mutrie, N. (2008) Psychology of Physical Activity: Determinants, Well-being and Interventions, 2nd edition, London and New-York: Routledge,
Birkeland, I. (2005). Making Place, Making Self, Travel, Subjectivity and Sexual difference. Hunts: Ashgate.
Bouman, Z. (1996) From Pilgrimage to Tourist – or a Short History of Identity. In Gymnasium, S.& Du Gay, Y (Eds.) Questions of Identity, London: Sage.
Brighenti, A.M. (2010) Visibility in Social Theory and Social Experience. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
Brownson, R. C., Housemann, R. A., Brown, D.R., Jackson-Thompson, J., King, A.C., Abby, C., Malon, B.R & Sallis, J. F (2000) Promoting physical activity in rural communities: Walking trail access, use, and effects. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 18 (3), 224-235.
CBS, Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (2017), Plate 2.15, Population according to district http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton68/st02_15x.pdf
Carabelli, G. (2014). Gdje si? Walking as a Reflexive Practice. In Brown, E. and Shortell, T (eds.) Walking the City: Quotidian Mobility and Ethnographic Methods, Aldershot: Ashgate, 191-206.
Casey, E, S. (1993) Getting back into place. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Central Bureau of Statitics CBS (2017) Annual Statistical Yearbook. Jerusalem (Hebrew)
Craig, C. L., Russell, S. J., Cameron, C., & Bauman, A. (2004) Twenty-year trends in physical activity among Canadian adults. Can J Public Health, 95 (1), 59-63.
Cresswell, T. (1996) In Place Out of Place: Geography, Ideology, and Transgression. Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press.
Cuba, L. & Hommon, D. M. (1993) A Place to call home: identification with dwelling, community and region. Sociological quarterly, 34, 111-134.
Daoud, N. (2007) Explanatory pathways to socioeconomic inequalities in health among the Arab population in Israel. PhD diss. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Degen, M. (2010) Consuming Urban Rhythms: Let's Ravalejar. In Edensor, T. (Ed.), Geographies of Rhythm, Nature, Place, Mobilities and Bodies. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Dobson, S. (2011) Sustaining Place through Community Walking Initiatives. Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, 1 (2), 109 - 121.
Edensor, T. (2000). Walking in the British countryside: Reflexivity embodied practices and ways to escape. Body & Society, 6, 81–106.
Ellis, E., Grimsley, M., Goyder, E., Blank, L. & Peters, J. (2007) Physical activity and health: Evidence from a study of deprived communities in England. J Public Health, 29 (1), 27-34.
Ezzati, M, Vander Hoorn, S., Lawes, C. M. M., Leach, R., & James, W. P. T. (2005) Rethinking the 'Diseases of Affluence' Paradigm: Global Patterns of Nutritional Risks in Relation to Economic Development. PLoS Med, 2(5): e133. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020133
Fenster, T. (1998) Gender and space—aspects of planning and developing the Negev Bedouin settlements. Studies in the Geography of Israel, 16: 229-254. (Hebrew)
-----. (1999) Space for gender: Cultural roles of the forbidden and the permitted. Environment and Planning D, Society and Space, 17, 227-246.
Fraser, D., Bilenko, N. & Vardi, H. (2008) Differences in food intake and disparity in obesity rates between adult Jews and Bedouins in southern Israel. Ethn Dis, 18, 13-18.
-----. Weitzman, S., Blondheim, S., Shany, S., & Abu-Rabiah, Y. (1990) The Prevalence of Cardiovascular Risk Factors among Male Bedouins: A Population in Transition, European Journal of Epidemiology http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/Y0600M/y0600m06.htm
Fraser, N. (1990) Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy. Social Text, 25/26, 56-80.
Galal, O. (2003) Nutrition-related health patterns in the Middle East. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 12, (3), 337-43.
Garbia, A. (2004) Using on-line Chats by Bedouin Youth. MA Thesis, the Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. (Hebrew)
Göle, N. (2002) Islam in Public: New Visibilities and New Imaginaries. Public Culture, 14 (1), 173–190.
Gooch, P. (2008) Feet following Hooves. In Ingold, T.&, Vergunst, J. L (Eds.), Ways of Walking, Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Aldershot: Ashgate, 67-80.
Groen, J., Balough, M., Levy, M., Yaron, E. (1964) Nutrition of the Bedouins in the Negev Desert. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 14, 37-46.
Hannam, K., Sheller, M. and Urry, J. (2006) Editorial: Mobilities, immobilities and moorings. Mobilities, 1(1), 1-22.
Heidegger, M. (1988) Being and time. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hetherington, K. (1998) Expressions of Identity: Space, Performance, Politics. London: Sage.
Hutabarat L. R. (2009) Walkability: what is it? Journal of Urbanism, 2 (2), 145-166.
Igud Hasport Haamami BeIsrael (The Association of Popular Sport in Israel) (2017) Continuation Survey of Physical Activity Sports in Israeli Society. http://www.isfa.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2017.pdf (Hebrew)
Ingold, T. (2004) Culture on the Ground: The World Perceived Through the feet. Journal of Material Culture, 9, 315-340.
Janssen, P. T., Katzmarzyk1, W. F., Boyce1, C. Vereecken, C., Mulvihill, C., Roberts, C., Currie, W. & Pickett, L. (2005) Comparison of overweight and obesity prevalence in school-aged youth from 34 countries and their relationships with physical activity and dietary patterns. Obesity Reviews, 6 (2), 123–132.
Jarvis, R. (1997) Romantic writing and pedestrian travel. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Karrholm, M., Johansson, M. Lindelow, D. and Fereirra, I.A. (2017) Interseriality and different sorts of walking: Suggestions for a relational approach to urbanwalking, Mobilities, 12, 1, 20-35, DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2014.969596
Kedem-Friedrich, P. and Al-Atawneh, M. (2004) Does modernity lead to greater well-being? Bedouin women undergoing socio-cultural transition. Social Indicators Reseacrh, 67, 333-351.
Kisch, S. (2009) Reproductive encounters: Negev Bedouin women’s lay encounters at childbirth in an Israeli hospital. Anthropological Quarterly, 82, (3), 719–754.
Lee, J. and Ingold, T. (2006) Fieldwork on foot: Perceiving, routing, socialising. In Coleman, S. and P. Collins (eds), Locating the Field: Space, Place and Context in Anthropology. Oxford: Berg.
Legat, A. (2008) Walking stories; Leaving footprints. In Ingold, T. & Vergunst, J. L. (Eds.), Ways of Walking, Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Aldershot: Ashgate, 16-31.
MABAT. (2003) First Israeli National Health and Nutrition Survey 1999–2001. Publication No. 225. Jerusalem: Israel Center for Disease Control: Ministry of Health. (Hebrew)
Manzo, L, C. (2005) For better or worse: Exploring multiple dimensions of place meaning. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25, 67-86.
Marshall, S.J., Jones, D.A., Ainswort, B.E. Reis, J.P., Levi, S & Macera, C.A. (2007) Race/ethnicity, social class, and leisure-time physical inactivity. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 39 (1), 44-51.
Massey, D. B. (1994) Space, Place, and Gender. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Meir, A. (1996) Territoriality among the Negev Bedouin in transition from nomadism to sedentarism. In Febietti, U., & Salzman, P. C. (Eds.) The Anthropology of Tribal and Peasant Pastoral Societies. Pavia Collegio Ghislieri, Ibis, .
-----. (1997). As Nomadism Ends: The Israeli Bedouin of the Negev, Boulder CO: Westview Press, 187-207.
Meir, A. & Ben-David, Y. (1992). A Latent surplus: Changing value of sedentarizing and semi-urbanizing nomadic Bedouin children in Israel. Urban Anthropology, 21, 137-152.
Meir, A. & Marx, E. (2005) Land, towns and planning: The Negev Bedouin and the State of Israel. Geography Research Forum, 25, 43-62.
Moore , J. B., Jilcott S. B., Kindal, A. S., Evenson, K. R., Brownson, R. C, & Novick, L. F, (2010) A qualitative examination of perceived barriers and facilitators of physical activity for urban and rural youth. Health Educ. Res. 25 (2), 355-367.
Murphy, M., Nevill, A., Neville, C., Biddle, S. & Hardman, A. (2002) Accumulating brisk walking for fitness, cardiovascular risk, and psychological health. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., 34, (9), 1468-1474.
Novotny T. E. (2005) Why we need to rethink the diseases of affluence. PLoS Med, 2, (5), e104. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020104.
Oldenburg, R. (1999) The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. Boston: Da Capo Press.
Owen, N., Humpel, N., Leslie, E. Bauman, A & Sallis, J. F, (2004) Understanding environmental influences on walking, review and research agenda. Am J Prev Med, 27 (1), 67–76.
Parks, S. E., Housemann, R. A., & Brownson, R. C. (2003) Differential correlates of physical activity in urban and rural adults of various socioeconomic backgrounds in the United States. J Epidemiol Community Health, 57, 29–35.
Patton, M. Q. (1987) How to use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation. London: Sage.
Paz, U. & Almog, O. (2009) Sport and Physical Activity among the Ultra-Orthodox in Israel. People in Israel, a guide for the Israeli Society, Online Journal, (Hebrew) http://www.peopleil.org/details.aspx?itemID=7559
Pink, S. (2008) Mobilising visual ethnography: Making routes, making place and making images. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9, (3), Art. 36, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803362.
Popenoe, R. (2004) Feeding Desire, Fatness, Beauty and Sexuality among a Saharan People. London and New-York: Routledge.
Ramsden, H. (2017) Walking and talking: Making strange encounters within the familiar. Social & Cultural Geography, 18, 53-77.
Rapoport, A. (1983) Environment quality, Metropolin areas and traditional settlements. Habotat International, 7, 37-63.
Reichert, F., Barros, A. J. D. Domingues, M. R & Gymnasiumal, P. C. (2007) tThe role of perceived personal barriers to engagement in leisure-time physical activity. American Journal of Public Health, 97, (3), 515-519.
Rodaway, P. (1994) Sensuos Geographies: Body, Sense and Place. London and New-York: Routledge.
Sallis, J. F., Zakarian, J. M., Hovell, M. F & Hofstetter, C. R, (1999) Ethnic, socioeconomic, and sex differences in physical activity among adolescents. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 49 (2), 125-134.
Sheller, M. (2014) The new mobilities paradigm for a live sociology. Current Sociology, 62 (6), 789-781.
Sheller, M. and Urry, J. (2006). The new Mobilities Paradigm. Environment and Planning, 38, 207 -226.
Svirsky, S. & Hasson, Y. (2005) Transparent Citizens. Tel-Aviv: Adva Centre. (Hebrew)
Tal, S. (1995) The Bedouin Women in the epoch of changes. Beer Sheva, Jo Alon Centre (Hebrew).
Tuck-Po, L. (2008) Before a step too far: Walking with Batek Hunter-Gatgherers in the Forests of Pahang, Malesia. In Ingold, T. & Vergunst, J. L. (Eds.), Ways of Walking, Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Aldershot: Ashgate, 21-34.
Tully, M. A., Cupples, M. E., & Chan, W. S. (2005) Brisk walking, fitness, and cardiovascular risk: Arandomized controlled trial in primary care. Prev Med, 628, 1622–1628.
Waitt, G., Gill. N & Head, L. (2009) Walking practice and suburban nature-talk. Social & Cultural Geography, 10 (1), 41-60.
Wallace, A. (1993) Walking, Literature and English Culture. Oxford: Clarendon.
Wardle, J. & Steptoe, A. (2003) Socioeconomic differences in attitudes and beliefs about healthy lifestyles. J Epidemiol Community Health, 57, 440-443.
Wylie, J. (2005) A single day’s walking: Narrating self and landscape on the South West coast path. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 30, 234–247.
Yuval-Davis, N. (1997) Gender and Nation. London: Sage.
Zukin, S. (1995) The Cultures of Cities. Oxford: Blackwell.
