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Sinai, Bedouin woman grinding flour
Summary
Taken either by the American Colony Photo Department or its successor, the Matson Photo Service.
Title from negative sleeve.
On guide card: Sinai, see p. 437-462.
Photograph taken in the oasis of Wadi Feiran, where there is an abundant palm grove to supply material/palm leaves to build a similar hut(?), showing a Bedouin woman grinding flour with locally supplied grinding stones, where the wheat seeds are fed through the upper hole. The upper grinding stone is turned against the lower/base stone using a wooden handle fixed in a side-hole in the upper stone. The flour is collected on the piece of cloth under the grinding stones. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
The traditional Bedouin dwellings and livelihood and tools, e.g. grinding stones, mirrored pre-historic ages post Chalcolithic/Copper Age and the start of Early Bronze Age I (4500-3150 BCE), marking the very end of hunting and gathering around summer desert lakes and the development of tribal chiefdoms and husbandry based economy. Camels replaced feral donkeys in transportation in 2nd millennium BCE, though domesticated donkeys are still used in the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula. The Bedouin inhabitants of South Sinai belong to "El-Tawara Tribal Alliance" between the following tribes mostly migrated from the Arabian Peninsula and settled in Sinai Peninsula between 10th and 17th centuries CE: Mezena (17th century CE), 'Aliqat (14th century CE), Hamada (pre-Islamic) and Bani Wasel (10th-13th centuries CE), Awlad Sa'aed (14th century CE), Qrarsha (16th century CE) and Sawalha (14th century CE), and Gebaliya (6th century CE), in addition to Mawtra (? century CE) tribe. The Bedouins traditionally followed a seasonal migration cycle until 1980s CE, especially in the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula, herding on pastures at different areas and/or altitudes (and practiced seasonal agriculture), where young women herd goats and boys herd camels. They lived in dark tents (or straw or palm leaves huts in some areas in winter) made/woven of goat/camel wool (Arabic: Beit Sha'ar) which were pitched in a row facing east on open grounds in summer or in the protection of boulders or man-made U-shape stone walls (Arabic: Huweita) acting as a wind-breaker breaker in winter, i.e. temporary campsites. Motor vehicles started replacing camels in Sinai Peninsula in the 1920s and 1930s CE. The oases and the Byzantine (later Bedouin) mountain orchards formed a more permanent form of settlements since 3rd-4th centuries CE. Bedouins living inland and on coast traded local products, e.g. agriculture such as fruits and dates for dried fish. A Bedouin wife was traditionally responsible (and partially still) for weaving cloth from camel/goat wool for clothing, tent, furniture, etc, bringing water from wells and springs, collecting firewood, grinding seeds, baking, milking camels and goats, making butter and cooking, bringing up children, etc, while a Bedouin husband is responsible for bringing seeds, goats, camels and donkeys and grinding stones, buying clothing and tent furniture, making charcoal, etc. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
Gift; Episcopal Home; 1978.
The G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection is a source of historical images of the Middle East. The majority of the images depict Palestine (present-day Israel and the West Bank) from 1898 to 1946. Most of the Library of Congress collection consists of over 23,000 glass and film photographic negatives and transparencies created by the American Colony Photo Department and its successor firm, the Matson Photo Service. The American Colony Photo Department in Jerusalem was one of several photo services operating in the Middle East before 1900. Catering primarily to the tourist trade, the American Colony and its competitors photographed holy sites, often including costumed actors recreating Biblical scenes. The firm’s photographers were residents of Palestine with knowledge of the land and people that gave them an advantage and made their coverage intimate and comprehensive. They documented Middle East culture, history, and political events from before World War I through the collapse of Ottoman rule, the British Mandate period, World War II, and the emergence of the State of Israel. The Matson Collection also includes images of people and locations in present-day Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Turkey. Additionally, the firm produced photographs from an East African trip. The collection came to the Library of Congress between 1966 and 1981, through a series of gifts made by Eric Matson and his beneficiary, the Home for the Aged of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Los Angeles (now called the Kensington Episcopal Home).
A semi-nomadic group of tribes, the oldest desert people of the Arabian Peninsula. Known for their ingenuity and hospitality, the Bedouin have adapted to living in a harsh climate. Their tribes moved constantly from place to place, travelling thousands of miles across the sand dunes. They used the sun to determine east and west, and the stars to determine north and south. They also used the shape of the dunes as a guide to the direction of the prevailing winds. The Bedouins were excellent trackers and could not only tell the difference between human and animal tracks in the sand, but also whether they belonged to a man, a boy, a woman or a girl.
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