The evil eye and cultural beliefs among the Bedouin tribes of the Negev, Middle East [1]

Folklore, Dec, 2005 by Aref Abu-Rabia

Abstract

This paper examines Bedouin attitudes and practices relating to the evil eye as a cause of misfortune. The evil eye is perceived by the Bedouin as one of the most dangerous forces that can interfere in their lives, and they invest much energy in a variety of methods to counteract it. This paper seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon by describing the rituals of diagnosis, treatment and prevention among the Bedouin tribes of the Negev in the Middle East.

The evil eye can bring a man to his grave, and a camel to the cooking pot (Arab-Bedouin saying).

The evil eye is like a light. You can see it, feel it, be affected by it, or affect others by means of it. It can cause harm or even death in large numbers, but you never succeed in holding it in your hands. This is the will of Allah (Bedouin saying).

Introduction

Belief in the evil eye is an important part of Bedouin folk culture from the cradle to the grave. It serves as a crucial mechanism to explain social problems, envy, bad luck and misfortune in the uncertain conditions of the desert environment. The belief in the evil eye is constantly present in people's lives, alongside beliefs about spirits, jinns and other demons, and it has serious implications for how individuals perceive the world and their place in it.

The evil eye in Bedouin folk belief is tied to the fear of envy and jealousy in the eye of the beholder. It is said to be conveyed by a strange gaze, of by admiration without a blessing. The evil eye is said to cause impairment of sexual activity, impotence, sterility, disorders in menstruation, problems in pregnancy and childbirth, deficient breast milk, mastitis, a baby's refusal to suckle, and so on.

It affects children, adults, livestock, and any kind of possession, and the most vulnerable are the very young, the wealthy and the beautiful. Characteristic symptoms of an attack of the evil eye are: drowsiness, slight yawns, drooping eyelids, listlessness, fatigue, weariness, lack of concentration, restlessness, discomfort, cramps, convulsions, headaches, hiccoughs and, among babies and young children, incessant crying and fretting.

The belief in the evil eye is embedded in the folklore of fallahin societies throughout the Middle East. The common Arabic name for the evil eye is 'ayn', and there are two types: that of humankind (insiya) and that of the jinns (jinniyah). People use various methods to protect themselves from it and to treat the symptoms: amulets, charms, talismans, spells, incantations, vows and sacrifices, and so on. The evil eye's influence is usually counteracted by means of devices and practices intended to distract its attention and magically annul its power.

The Bedouin appear to have one set of folk beliefs (including the evil eye) in their culture, and another set of beliefs about Islam. From their viewpoint, there is no incompatibility between the two. Islamic tradition informs many of the protections and cures performed by traditional healers, who play a vital role in sustaining the evil eye beliefs by diagnosing and treating illnesses attributed to supernatural causes. This is also true of new "healers" currently offering Quran-based treatments. As this essay will show, Bedouin evil eye traditions remain vigorous even now, despite increasing urbanisation.

Fieldwork and Methods

Data for this paper are derived from a broader study of folk beliefs and folk medicine conducted between 1992 and 2002. All the material was recorded in field logs, and some was tape-recorded. Unstructured interviews and participant observation were carried out in the informants' homes (both men and women), as well as in the residences of traditional healers (again both men and women). Most of the healers were over forty years of age, and all of them were married. All the informants were over twenty-five years of age.

It is usually difficult to gain more than a superficial knowledge of intimate life in other cultures, as anthropologists know. However, as I myself am a Bedouin from the Negev, and as I have maintained close personal ties with the tribes among whom I carried out fieldwork for my PhD thesis in 1983-5, informants felt relaxed and were generally glad to share information with me.

Today, around sixty per cent of the 140,000 Bedouin in the Negev live in seven towns, and most of the remaining forty per cent live in tribal settlements of varying sizes, in clusters of wooden or metal huts, tents, or in cement block or stone houses. The Bedouin population is divided into two main groups according to the type of settlement involved:

* Residents of the seven towns, established by the authorities: Rahat, Tel-Sheva [Tel al-Saba'], Kuseife [Ksifa], 'Aro'er ['Ar'ara], Segev Shalom [Shgib al-Salam], Hura and Laqiya.

* Residents of dispersed, unauthorised settlements who live in tribes outside the seven towns, in concentrations of varying size (Abu-Rabia 2002, 202-11).

The Social and Cultural Context

In recent years, the Bedouin in the Negev have undergone a massive and very rapid process of urbanisation. Their evacuation from their lands, largely against their will, and their hurried settlement in towns has had a profound social impact. In these towns, the Bedouin experience difficulties in social and economic adjustment, and in maintaining internal cohesion, resulting in hitherto unknown socio-economic problems of poverty, unemployment, drug trafficking and drug abuse (Abu-Saad 2002). Some of the towns have become distressed areas and focal points of frustration and bitterness. The Bedouin have been left to their own devices in integrating into the regional wage labour market in Israel, and public educational, health and community services are supplied to them by the state (Meir 1997, 169-92).