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Petra, Jordan became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985, and the semi-nomadic Bedouin inhabiting the area were resettled as a consequence. The Bedouin themselves paradoxically became UNESCO Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage in 2005 for the way in which their oral traditions and everyday lives relate to the landscape they no longer live in. Being Bedouin Around Petra asks: How could this happen? And what does it mean to be Bedouin when tourism, heritage protection, national discourse, an Islamic Revival and even New Age spiritualism lay competing claims to the past in the present?
List of contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction: In the Presence of Things
Chapter 1. Preserving Heritage – Marketing Bedouinity
Chapter 2. Taming Heritage
Chapter 3. The Shameful Shaman
Chapter 4. Dealing with Dead Saints
Chapter 5. The Allure of Things
Chapter 6. Ambiguous Materialities
Conclusion
References
Index
About the author
Mikkel Bille is a professor in ethnology at University of Copenhagen. His research focuses on the role of material culture and the senses in contemporary society.
Summary
Petra, Jordan became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985, and the semi-nomadic Bedouin inhabiting the area were resettled as a consequence. The Bedouin themselves paradoxically became UNESCO Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage in 2005 for the way in which their oral traditions and everyday lives relate to the landscape they no longer live in. Being Bedouin Around Petra asks: How could this happen? And what does it mean to be Bedouin when tourism, heritage protection, national discourse, an Islamic Revival and even New Age spiritualism lay competing claims to the past in the present?
