Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
life in the desert is uncompromisingly hard, entailing goat-hair
beds and scorpions, insufferable heat and freezing nights, not
enough to eat and being forever thirsty. Add to that the modern
complexities of life (compulsory education, impinging urban-
isation, and the tough and fickle demands of working with
tourists) and it's easy to see that there's nothing simple or free
in a modern Bedouin life.
It's little surprise then that while many regret the passing of
the golden age of nomadic life, the majority of Jordan's indi-
genous population look towards settlement and the convenien-
ce that it brings. Today, therefore, as a visitor to Jordan, you are just as likely to run into
the Bedouin on a mobile phone at the bus station or in public-assisted housing at the edge
of Petra. They are wistful for the stories of their grandparents but they are not nostalgic
about the hardships. Television, internet and 4WD transport have changed their lives
forever but as they are not regretful of this, then neither should a visitor be!
The Bedouin are known for their sense
of humour, which they list - alongside
courage, alertness and religious faith -
as one of the four secrets of life, en-
couraging tolerance and humility.
The Bedouin Inheritance
Good Manners
There are many ways in which Jordan's Bedouin roots have influenced the national
psyche. For the visitor, perhaps the most easily identifiable aspects of this inheritance is
the value placed on good manners. Etiquette in Jordan has been refined over centuries of
tribal interaction and is an important expression of national identity. Social mores cover
all aspects of life from the length and depth of an introductory 'hello' to how many cups
of coffee to be offered and accepted, and who offers what to whom at supper.
For a visitor, learning the subtleties of 'custom and manner' is challenging, but making
the effort to fit in is invariably appreciated, particularly if visiting Jordanians at home.
A DISHONOURABLE HOAX
In 2004 a book entitled
Forbidden Love,
written by Norma Khouri, arrived on the bookshelves. Within weeks the
author (to the delight of her publisher, Random House) found she had a bestseller on her hands. Better and bigger
than that, she had overnight become the convenient voice the West wanted to hear: an Arab woman speaking out
against the supposed 'tyranny of Islam'. Soon she was feted on chat shows and courted by newspaper journalists,
and her tale assumed the quality of moral crusade taken up with indignation by worthy people around the world.
