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from white stone to blue bead: materialized beliefs and sacred beads among the bedouin in israelariela popper-giveon, atef abu-rabia, and jonathan ventura

david yelin academic college, royal college of art london, and ben-gurion university

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ABSTRACTThe Bedouin of southern Israel have long used healing beads of stone or coral to treat various physical ailments (such as wounds and infections). These beads, which constitute a sociocultural linchpin in Bedouin society, are now being replaced by a more modern variety: glass or plastic beads, mostly blue in color and used primarily to counter the evil eye. This article deals with the recent change in the function and appearance of Bedouin healing beads from handmade, rare and unique beads to cheap, mass-produced items. This material change conforms with a more extensive shift in traditional Bedouin healing practices from treating physical ailments to addressing spiritual hardship.

Keywords: beads, Bedouin, Israel, Islam, traditional healing, material culture

Material Religion volume 10, issue 2, pp. 132–153DOI: 10.2752/175183414X13990269049329© Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2014

Ariela Popper-Giveon currently teaches at the Open University and David Yellin Academic College in Israel. Her fields of interest include integrative oncology, traditional healing (especially women healers), and Palestinian women in Israel and their coping strategies. She also displays an active interest in qualitative methodology.

Atef Abu-Rabia majored in Middle Eastern studies at Ben-Gurion University, where he is currently a research assistant at the Department of Geography and Environmental Development. He also teaches at Etgar College and works as a field researcher, focusing on human rights for the Negev Bedouin.

Jonathan Ventura is currently a visiting research fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art in London. He teaches at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and Hadassah Academic College in Israel, specializing in design anthropology, visual and material culture, and theories of design.

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IntroductionWhen we first met Afaf, she lived in a deprived neighborhood in the heart of a mixed Jewish–Arab city in central Israel. During the day she would sit, almost motionless, on the dilapidated couch, on which a frayed blue synthetic fabric offered a glimmer of life, chain-smoking and drinking cup after cup of black coffee. At night, she would snuggle silently on the sofa and fall asleep. Most of the time, her friend Tamam would storm around the house, chattering continuously, lamenting her miserable fate, and scolding her children. Afaf would watch her complacently from her usual place on the sofa and nod her head quietly.

Afaf, a Bedouin woman in her mid-thirties, suffers from various mental problems. She claims that she was troubled recently by severe headaches, describing herself as restless and suffering from “nerves,” a sign of her deteriorating mental health. At the peak of this crisis, she was hospitalized at a mental institution and diagnosed as suffering from depression. Afaf tells us she became ill because she did not heed her traditional healer’s instructions. Instead of hanging the bead given to her by the woman healer on her neck, she immersed it in water which she then drank. Since then, she claims, her troubles have increased and her pain, both mental and physical, has reached new levels of intensity.

This story of the mysterious powers of the healing bead was collected as part of lengthy fieldwork on traditional Arab women healers in Israel: urban healers, situated in mixed Arab–Jewish cities such as Jaffa, Lod, and Ramla and Bedouin healers situated in tribal communities in the south of Israel (Popper-Giveon 2012; Popper-Giveon and Ventura 2008).

Later, when we asked Afaf again about the bead, she claimed it was a blue bead intended to annul the evil eye’s influence. Her short answer resembled various laconic descriptions presented by other informants, who knew about the healing beads’ existence yet never elaborated farther than the same cryptic phrase mentioning the bead’s blue hue and its power to defeat the evil eye’s harmful influence.

Research literature also had little to offer. Researchers focusing primarily on traditional Arab healing (e.g. Doumato 2000; Rothenberg 2004; Sengers 2003) rarely mention beads explicitly, perhaps because they consider the subject to be of negligible value, both physically and theoretically. Even the few studies that do concentrate on traditional Bedouin healing in Israel (e.g. Al-Krenawi 2000) did not elaborate on the topic.

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Several other research areas are directly concerned with beads and could supply a broader context for understanding the phenomenon. Archaeologists, for example, show interest in beads, which they consider key testimony to epic historical struggles because of their material resilience and visibility (Bradley Foster 2001 [1998]; Davison 1972; Kinahan 2000). As of the late 1990s (Stine, Cabak, and Groover 1996), however, they began examining the cultural and symbolic meaning of beads as well, in ornaments and religious artifacts alike, viewing them as a central component of culture rather than as personal items. Beads also surface in gender studies, as they are closely identified as a feminine cultural element in their means of production and use (O’Hear 2001 [1998]; Sciama 1995).

Early anthropological research dealt directly with beads, mostly as a manifestation of traditional cultures’ ability to use technology for production of material objects. Boas (1927), for example, studied the beads produced by North American tribes, primarily describing their colors and forms. Years later, Evans-Pritchard (1956) studied the Nuer system of material exchange and described the role beads play within it. Because of the recent interest in indigenous aesthetics in the West, however, beads were mostly considered as folklore curiosities, to be presented elegantly in coffee-table books (e.g. Koltuv 2005). This is unfortunate, because beads, no matter how physically minute, reflect much knowledge about aesthetics, design, material culture, religious principles, social hierarchies, cosmologic conceptions, and gender conventions in various cultures.

The scarcity of research literature references to beads in general and healing beads in particular led us on an extensive search that took us to Bedouin communities in the Negev district of southern Israel in search of recollections and stories that span centuries. We found beads in colorful and busy markets and gained fascinating insights into these stone and blue glass material witnesses. Indigenous researcher Atef Abu-Rabia was of great assistance in this respect. As a resident of a Bedouin community in southern Israel, he was able to collect the lore and traditions from his elders and enhance them with depth and elaboration. Thanks to our cooperation with Atef, as a partner more than an informant, we were able to acquire a more intense understanding of the subject—both emic and etic (Geertz 1973)—from the inside and the outside, much like the mutual journey Humphrey took into Mongolian shamanism with indigenous researcher Urgunge Onon (Humphrey 1996).

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This quest in search of healing beads yielded a vast body of knowledge, unpublished to the best of our knowledge. It builds on two previous bodies of knowledge—material culture and anthropology (more specifically, medical anthropology)—and is apparently the first to integrate them in the specific context of the Negev Bedouin, involving a particular kind of mediation and interplay between authoritative knowledge and enchantment, science and magic (Macdonald 2005: 210).

This quest echoes and reflects the liminal position of the contemporary Arab community in Israel: between past and present, tradition and change, receptivity to the outside world and protection of old values and institutions against Westernization. Healing beads mirror and exemplify these dilemmas. Research on healing beads in their social, religious, and cultural contexts will cross the threshold of visual folklore (Hasan-Rokem 2000) into material culture (Woodward 2007)—a theoretical passage that broadens discussion far beyond visual aspects into history, society, economy, and culture.

In the following sections, we delve into two major theoretical worlds: traditional healing attributes in Islamic communities in Israel—including a brief description of Bedouin society—and the material world of healing beads. We then proceed to highlight several insights regarding healing beads among Bedouin Arabs in Israel, taking into account the immense transformations this community is now undergoing.

Traditional Arab Healing in IsraelDespite the progress of modernization, traditional Arab healing still thrives in Israel, in rural and urban communities alike (Popper-Giveon, 2009). Despite efforts to separate them (as manifested primarily in researchers’ awareness), magic still pervades modernity (Pels, 2003). As a rule, one may identify two separate folk and religious traditions among traditional Arab healers. The first includes folk healers (men and women) using medicinal herbs, massage, incisions and searing. These healers, at times inspired by the healing principles of classic Arabic medicine (a-tab al-arabi al-qadim) (Adib, 2004; Dols, 1992), help with common problems, such as childhood diseases and skin rashes, or ailments with which conventional medicine is at a disadvantage, such as chronic diseases and psychosomatic disorders.

The second healing tradition is religious healing, practiced primarily by male healers (sheikhs or dervishes), who treat patients stricken by djinns (demons), witchcraft, or the most common source of damage, whether trivial or critical, the evil eye (al-hassd). The term “evil eye”

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derives from the widespread belief that the human gaze is capable of harming a person, an animal, or even goods (Garrison and Arensberg 1976; Maloney 1976), usually as a result of the jealousy and greed common to stratified communities such as those of the Middle East (Sachs 1983; Westermarck 1968 [1926]). These religious healers treat following the principles of prophetic medicine (a-tab a-nawi) (Rahman 1998), emphasizing the disease’s spiritual causes and preaching for spiritual healing through reading Qur’anic verses and using the power of its sacred words and letters, mostly in amulets.

In reality, the two traditions, folk and religious, are dually manifested in both diagnosis and treatment practices currently provided by traditional Arab healers—both men and women—in Israel (Al-Krenawi 2000; Gorkin and Othman 1994; Masalha and Baron 1994; Popper-Giveon 2012; Rothenberg 2004). More and more healers tend to use herbs and prescribe amulets, read from the Qur’an, and massage their patients to treat physical ailments, mental hardships, and life difficulties. Diagnostics, as well as treatment practices, are thus becoming numerous and varied.

Abiding by the BeadTraditional Arab healers in Israel, as in other areas of the Middle East (Inhorn 1994; Önder, 2007; Sengers, 2003), use various healing methods, such as medicinal herbs and Quran verses. The commonest treatment method, however, is healing through amulets. Amulets are usually created as protection from harmful demons, the evil eye, or witchcraft. They are used to treat and prevent illness, madness, physical danger, poverty, and other afflictions. In particular, amulets are preferred for intervention in social relationships—infertility and barrenness, economic hardships, and marital issues—the same domains governed by the evil eye and demons.

The amulet is usually a small material object carried on or close to one’s body (Hill 2007). In the Middle East, as in other cultures, two types of amulets evolved: natural and constructed (Dubin 1987). Natural amulets include animal organs (based on the belief that the bearer can harness their strengths and abilities), herbs, stones, and minerals, all of which are used for healing and protection. Constructed amulets are of two types: written and ornamental. The former are ascribed vast material importance (Skemer 2006). They can be inscribed on various materials, such as paper, parchment, silver, cloth, or earthenware. The written phrase is usually a verse from the Qur’an, a prayer, or an incantation using occult knowledge and divine names.

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Constructed amulets that are not textual are commonly ornaments or body jewels. Jeweled amulets are created to protect their wearers while attesting to their socioeconomic status. This category includes ornamental statuettes: animal figures (Frembgen 2004), occult and magical shapes, such as the hamsa—the symbol of an outstretched hand protecting against the evil eye, which is very common in Muslim communities along the Mediterranean coast—and blue glass beads, similar to the one Afaf immersed in water despite her healer’s clear instructions.

Research literature dealing with traditional Arab healers in Israel focuses primarily on written amulets. Such amulets, which usually contain Qur’anic verses and are associated with religious healing, are the commonest and best-known amulets in this cultural milieu (Al-Krenawi 2000; Gorkin and Othman 1994; Masalha and Baron 1994; Rothenberg 2004). Nevertheless, between the lines, several sporadic and unique testimonies surfaced concerning non-textual amulets, specifically beads. These rare testimonies (e.g. Bar Zvi 2006) also surfaced in interviews we conducted with traditional Bedouin women healers in the Negev.

Bedouin women healers attested that children, women giving birth, and brides were especially susceptible to the evil eye’s harm and should therefore beware of jealous or angry relatives and acquaintances in their close surroundings, avoid bragging, and follow every compliment with a well-articulated religious formula. To protect male babies, who are also particularly vulnerable to the evil eye’s influence, some dress them as females, change their names, or, alternatively, leave them neglected and dirty, “bragging” of their stupidity and ugliness. One may further minimize the evil eye’s influence by hanging hamsa symbols and coins. Healing beads were mentioned in the interviews as a means of combating the evil eye, although reference to them was brief and simplistic.

In research literature as well, reference to the healing beads used by traditional healers in the Middle East was rare and rudimentary. For example, blue, eye-shaped beads are described as a means used by Islamic women in rural Turkey to combat the evil eye (Önder 2007). In Egypt, colored beads are used to treat infertility (Inhorn 1994). Furthermore, beads are mentioned (along with amulets, massage, exorcism, and pilgrimage) in descriptions of Islamic mental healing treatment in the Middle Ages (Dols 1992).

Healing beads are described in the literature as blue in color and resembling a human eye (Ozturk 1964). They are worn primarily by women and children, who are perceived

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as more susceptible to the evil eye’s influence (Dubin, 1987). At present, this rather laconic information is the principal research literature available concerning beads in Muslim traditional healing, particularly in the Middle East. Numerous other volumes dealing with Islamic traditional healing (Early 1993; Doumato 2000; Flueckiger 2006; Rasmussen 2006) do not mention healing beads at all.

Research ambiguity, laconic responses by healers and patients alike, and the overall secrecy surrounding the bead discourse encouraged us to embark on the present research project. Following our quest, we present a preliminary, pioneering description of several of the traditional Bedouin healing beads and their uses, never before published in research literature in English. With the help of Atef Abu-Rabia, an indigenous researcher, we were able to identify two general types of healing beads, old and new, which are now in use among the Bedouin communities of the Negev. Each of these types embodies different attributes that reflect, each in its own way, the intense changes coursing through contemporary Bedouin society in Israel and its healing practices.

The Bedouin in IsraelThe healing traditions described above are common among Muslim Arabs living in Israel, as well as in other countries in the Middle East. The healing beads discussed in the article are unique to the Bedouin population.

“Bedouin,” as a general term, includes all the nomadic tribes of the Middle East and North Africa whose ancestry is Arab. In late 2009, the Bedouin population of Israel was estimated at 260,000 persons, of whom about 193,000 resided in the Negev, 52,000 in various localities in northern Israel, and 15,000 in the center of the country, primarily in the cities of Lod and Ramla, that have mixed Jewish–Arab populations (Abraham Fund 2013—the source of all statistics in this study).

Nearly all the Negev Bedouin migrated to this area from the Arabian Peninsula and the Syrian Desert. Precisely when they did so is subject to debate: Some scholars maintain that migration took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, while others claim that it began earlier. After the establishment of the State of Israel and on the institution of military rule over Israel’s Arab population, the Bedouin were concentrated in the area southeast of Beersheba. In the late 1960s, the Israeli government decided to sedentize the Bedouin and determined that seven Bedouin towns were to be established in the Negev, seeking to secure government control of lands held by the Bedouin, provide the Bedouin with infrastructures and services, and prevent their

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dispersion over vast sections of territory (Abu-Rabia 2001). As of 2009, most Negev Bedouin lived in these towns (129,210 persons, constituting 67 percent of the Negev Bedouin population). About 45,600 (23.7 percent) lived in Bedouin localities that have not yet been officially sanctioned by the state and are termed “unrecognized villages.” These communities have no local government or public services and lack basic infrastructures such as water, sewers, and electricity.

The Negev Bedouin population is much younger than the Jewish population. Its natural growth rate has always been high, primarily because of the very high birth rate, partially motivated by the desire of each group (tribe or clan) to amass power and increase, thereby gaining the advantage in power plays with rival groups. Polygamy, which is common in Negev Bedouin society, also increases the number of children. Bedouin families are large and their residential crowding rate is especially high.

Bedouin villages suffer from a lack of municipal services and social service infrastructures. The percentage of unemployed persons is high, especially among women. Despite the improvement in medical services, the lifespan of the Bedouin is lower than that of the Jewish population and their infant mortality and chronic disease rates are relatively high.

Before the establishment of the State of Israel, few Negev Bedouin had any education, as their dispersion made it difficult to maintain any kind of organized educational system. Once the first seven towns were built in the 1970s, school construction led to gradual application of the Compulsory Education Law, although dropout rates among the Negev Bedouin are still high.

The Negev Bedouin population has recently undergone several rapid and dramatic changes. Compulsory urbanization and the influence of modernization have led the Bedouin to change the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed for centuries. Automobiles are gradually replacing camels, while tents are making way for permanent housing. These changes also affect traditional healing practices.

Ancient BeadsDuring the pre-Islamic Jahaliya period, Arabs used beads to counter the influence of evil demons and to cure diseases. The beads, perhaps as an expression of a lingering belief in the curative powers of stones, were worn on the body to offer protection and healing. With the birth of Islam, an abstract and monotheistic belief, the use of beads was abhorred and banned. Seeking protection and relief from inanimate beads was viewed as a blasphemous

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and pagan act, contradicting Islam’s primary dogmas, one of which is reliance on Allah as the only source of healing. In the Haddith, the use of beads was banned and reviled as heresy. Hence, Islamic healing—among Arabs in Israel and in other societies in the Middle East—was based, at least formally, on Qur’anic verses, along with medicinal herbs.

Despite these restrictions, however, healing beads kept their place over the years as a central part of the unique Bedouin way of life, notwithstanding the dominance of Islam in the region. Perchance the beads served as a concrete and material reminder of ancient beliefs among the Bedouin of the Negev. Such beliefs are also expressed in the Bedouin proverb “the flint stone heals women’s evil eye,” claiming that stones may counteract the damage the evil eye is purported to cause. We were unable to find similar ancient stone beads used by Palestinians in other parts of Israel, leading us to conclude that their prevalence among the Bedouin partly constitutes preservation of a unique tradition within contemporary global Islam. In the Bedouin community, bead use is not considered heresy but rather as part of an indigenous tradition and culture.

Bedouin call ancient healing beads h’rza. Traditionally, they are made of stone or coral, and most have a hole drilled through them for stringing, enabling the patient to hang the bead in close and immediate contact with the afflicted organ. Such beads, whose number is estimated at between several dozen and several hundred in the Negev region alone, are used for both prevention and treatment of people as well as animals, such as goats and camels. The most common beads used for healing purposes in the Bedouin communities of the Negev are listed below, together with the chief symptoms that each is said to counteract:

• Abeadusedfortreatinganimalurinaryproblems,hung close to the animal’s genitals or around its neck. Alternatively, the bead may be immersed in water that is given to the afflicted animal.

• Abeadcalledthe Wolf’s Adam’s Apple for treating lupus or whooping cough.

• Abeadtreatingfurunclesorpus-riddensores(Figure1).• Abeadusedforacquiringanother’slove.Peoplewho

wear it around their neck will achieve the love and respect of others, thereby fulfilling their goals and desires.

• Abeadtocounterbitesbyscorpions,snakesorpoisonous insects. The bead, smooth as a snake’s belly, is placed over the sting or bite and is believed to suck out the poison (Figure 2).

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• Abeadtofacilitatelabor.Whenawomannearslabor,the bead is placed around her neck or immersed in water that the woman then drinks.

• Abeadusedtotreatbreastinfection,especiallypainfulnipples due to breast feeding. The bead is placed between the breasts, as a necklace. Another method is to gently scrape the bead and sprinkle the breasts with the resulting powder.

• Abeadtocountertheevileye’sinfluence.Itiselongatedin shape, white or yellow in color and considered highly potent.

• Abeadusedtocureeyediseasesandinfections.Thisred bead is hung by a red string over the patient’s inflamed eyes. Occasionally, an ancient coin, called mashats, is placed near the bead (Figure 3).

FIG 1 A bead for treating furuncles. Photograph by Yagil Zivony.

FIG 2 A bead to counter poisonous bites and stings. Photograph by Yagil Zivony.

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• Ayellowbeadtocurehepatitis,adiseasewhosesymptoms include a yellow choroid.

• Abeadusedtopurifynewbornbabiesandhelpinfertilewoman. Just after birth, the newborn infant is washed with water in which the purifying green bead has been immersed.

• The Bead of Wind, used to treat joint problems, especially knee problems, brought on by spirits that penetrate the bones and cause infections and severe pain.

• The Bead of Gall, used to treat animals, primarily sheep, afflicted by gall bladder disorders.

• The Bead of Fear, used to treat anxiety, shock or panic.• The Bead of Love, used to help find a spouse,

especially for women.• The Bead of Milk, used to enhance breast milk among

women as well as livestock.

These traditional Bedouin healing beads are used mostly to treat physical problems, such as diseases, infections, and pain, although some are also used to facilitate the appropriate social order. For example, healing beads are employed in finding a suitable match or ensuring a healthy flow of mother’s milk, which is considered a social phenomenon as well as a physical one. Some beads are intended to protect the Bedouin from things they cannot control, such as snake bites, livestock ailments, and most commonly, the evil eye. Others are used to protect what is dear to wearers—especially newborn male children.

The beads are considered magical objects by their wearers. Their color and shape reveal and reflect their purpose and influence. Following the somewhat simplistic rule of sympathetic magic, yellow beads are used to heal hepatitis and red beads to cure eye infections (Figure 3).

FIG 3 A bead to cure eye infections. Photograph by Yagil Zivony.

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The bead for curing furuncles (Figure 1) has a white dot at its apex that resembles the sore, and the Bead of Milk, made of coral, is indeed as white as milk and is covered with tiny apertures, resembling the nipple’s surface.

Healing beads are applied according to the rules of contagious magic: A bead is placed around the patient’s neck, in direct contact with the body—particularly the affected organ—or immersed in water that the patient then drinks. Another means of treatment is to insert the bead into a butchered chicken’s stomach, cook it, and serve the meat to the patient (without the bead, of course).

The ancient beads, each serving a different function, are scarce, high-status items, which cannot be acquired on the local markets, but are passed down, through the generations, from mother to daughter. Hence their value and prestige derive from accumulated use and age, similar to the beads described by Janowski (2001 [1998]). Bedouin healing beads are mostly kept by the tribe’s elderly women, who possess knowledge of diseases and their cures. The women thread the beads and wear them around their neck, pack them in a special purse (Figure 4), or sew them into their clothing for protection. To this day, each tribe knows which of its elderly women possesses each healing bead. When disease, suffering, or the evil eye strike, the patient appeals to the elderly woman, whether she belongs to the same clan or another, asking to borrow the relevant bead. Patients may then use the bead until their condition improves, even if it takes a long time. No fee is levied for use of the bead, although it is customary to honor the donor with gifts of oil, sugar, or rice.

FIG 4 A purse to hold healing beads. Photograph by Yagil Zivony.

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Just like the gift cycle illuminated in Mauss’s classic essay (1990 [1925]), the borrowed beads reflect not only functional value but also the giver’s status and relationship with the receiver. The beads bear a memory load concerning places, experiences, and social relations (Hill 2007). This system is clearly familial, tribal, and local in nature. It is not based on the mediation of traditional Bedouin healers from the area and may thus be considered folk medicine, according to Kleinman’s definition (1980). This association of beads with a healing system that is neither professional, institutionalized, nor formally recognized may constitute one reason that the subject was largely ignored by researchers.

Contemporary BeadsAlthough rooted in an ancient tradition, traditional Bedouin healing beads have now become scarce. Some were lost as a consequence of the tribal disintegration that followed the urban reorganization imposed on the Bedouin by the Israeli government (Falah 1989). Most of the younger generations were experiencing vast sociocultural changes engendered by regular contact with Western-oriented Jewish society and the state-run Israeli educational system, leading them to prefer the conventional and prestigious biomedical system in cases of acute physical or mental ailments. The younger Bedouin generation considers modern conventional medicine to be a better suited, more effective, and less costly means of treating snake bites, hepatitis, and infections.

Along with the increasing use of conventional medicine among the Negev Bedouin, especially for acute physical ailments (Borkan, Morad, and Shvarts 2000), other beads have begun to surface as remedies in this community. As of the 1990s, rare, ancient, traditional Bedouin healing beads have been replaced gradually by new beads, like the one given to Afaf by the traditional healer. These new healing beads differ in various ways from the traditional ones described above (Table 1). The newer beads (Figure 5) are made of glass or plastic (and are mostly produced in the West Bank), in contrast to the stone or coral beads of days gone by. They are not borrowed from tribal notables but rather may be purchased by patients in markets and shops. The new healing beads are common among Palestinians throughout Israel, while the older beads are used exclusively by the Negev Bedouin. These new beads are generally not used for treating physical ailments, but primarily for addressing spiritual hardship, such as the evil eye, that can cause (and reflect) various mental and social problems. The evil eye, for example, reflects the growing tension, envy, and competition

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prevalent in the new Bedouin towns since the 1970s. Its symptoms, physical as well as mental, cannot be cured by the Jewish-dominated biomedical health institutions, which are not culturally aware of the Bedouin population’s unique needs and do not recognize the evil eye (which is spiritual in nature) as a legitimate cause of suffering.

The new beads, common among urban communities, are used to protect and alleviate suffering and pain among human beings only, unlike the old stone beads, which were also used to cure domestic animals. This shift in bead use and function thus reflects some of the transformations occurring in ways of life among Arabs in Israel and especially among the Bedouin tribes living in the Negev.

Both ancient and new beads are used primarily by women, who are identified (both aesthetically and functionally) with their use in the Middle East and other cultures (e.g. O’Hear 2001 [1998]; Otto 1984). The newer

Table 1 Ancient and new healing beads

Ancient beads New beads

Stone, coral Plastic, glass

Primarily for treating physical ailments Primarily for countermanding spiritual harm (witchcraft, evil eye)

Borrowed (gratis) or inherited Bought in local markets or prescribed by traditional healers

Circulated among families and tribes Manufactured in Hebron, Jerusalem, or neighboring Arab countries

Belong to the community Belong to the healer or the patient

Rare, handmade Common, mass produced

Bedouin only Palestinians in Israel, both Bedouin and Fellahin, other Muslim communities in the Middle East, and even Jews originating in Muslim countries

FIG 5 A bracelet of modern beads. Photograph by Yagil Zivony.

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beads, like their predecessors, conform to the rules of sympathetic magic. They are mostly blue or white, and some bear the image of a white eye with a dark or bright blue iris at its center. This design, used primarily for protection against the evil eye is not considered Bedouin per se and is known in various locations throughout the Middle East, including Turkey (Önder 2007; Sachs 1983) and Greece (Dubin 1987).

Archaeological evidence strongly suggests that similar concepts, linking eyes and protective magic to beads, evolved originally in Western Asia. Goddess figures, called eye goddesses, dating back to 3000 bc, with large, staring eyes, oversized breasts, and prominent bead necklaces, have been discovered at the Tel Brak site in eastern Syria. Their protective, maternal eyes perhaps signify the chief source of security, assurance, and protection embedded within the primordial mother–infant relationship (Dubin 1987: 307). At present, however, belief in the evil eye and in wearing protective eye bead amulets is most strongly represented within the popular layers of Islamic faith. One may find protective eye amulets all along the central, eastern, and southern regions of the Mediterranean.

New Beads in a Changing WorldThe newer healing beads became widespread in Negev Bedouin society during the early 1990s. We claim that this sociocultural shift is part of the intense cultural, social, and economic transformations this community is experiencing. First and foremost among them is the transition from nomadic tribal community to more urban and modern settlements and subsequently the growing participation of the Bedouin population in the state-run educational system. Apparently, traditional healing has not disappeared from Arab communities in Israel, including those of the Bedouin, as a result of close contact with the mostly modern, Westernized, and secular Jewish population. Instead, it is undergoing a transformation (Popper-Giveon 2009). Traditional Arab healers are gradually abandoning treatment of physical ailments, which are primarily the province of the biomedical system, in favor of addressing life hardships and spiritual problems. They distance themselves from problems whose cause and treatment are considered physical and concentrate on those perceived as deriving from supernatural causes, treating them accordingly through magical or religious means. These changes are more evident among healers in mixed (Jewish–Arab) cities in central Israel (such as Ramla, where Afaf lives), but are becoming more common among Bedouin healers as well, as the latter’s communities are exposed to acculturation processes and trends.

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The recent transformations in the Bedouin healing practices—from ancient to newer beads; from treating physical problems to treating ills of spiritual origin; from traditions handed down from generation to generation in families and tribes to purchased commodities; from borrowing to buying healing artifacts and services alike; from stone to plastic and glass—may be perceived as the result of several sociocultural changes affecting the Arab minority in Israel in general and the Bedouin therein in particular. First, as noted above, the dramatic improvement in the quality and accessibility of medical services for Negev Bedouin communities (Borkan et al. 2000; Raz 2005) rendered healing beads (for such as those used to treat snake bites and infections) irrelevant and anachronistic. Second, contact with Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories following the 1967 Six Day War (Smooha 2001) increased the quantity of beads and other goods circulating in various Arab communities, including those of the Bedouin. Hence Bedouin now use blue glass healing beads manufactured primarily in the greater Hebron area. Third, the Islamization process now affecting the Arab population of Israel (Abu Ramadan 2005; Rosmer 2012), including the Bedouin, led to a growing feeling of estrangement toward ancient Bedouin traditions and a concomitant intensification of identification with fellow Muslims throughout the Middle East. In this sense, the unique local Bedouin tradition embodied in the distinctive healing beads is cast aside in favor of a more global and universal Islamic tradition that prefers abstract symbolism (and textual amulets) over pre-Islamic stones.

Another explanation for the transition from ancient stone beads to plastic and glass is the increasing commodification among the Negev Bedouin. As a result of new consumption patterns, bead use is no longer a barter-based relationship, deeply embedded in the dense texture of Bedouin intratribal and intertribal relations, but has simply become one type of consumption among many. This pattern, associated with the higher socioeconomic and Western-oriented Jewish populace in Israel, permeates Bedouin economy and society and affects healing bead use as well. The ancient, rare, local, and handmade stone beads are thus replaced by widespread, uniform, manufactured glass or plastic beads, designed and produced elsewhere, detached from any local tradition, deprived of the touch of ethnicity, purchased in the market or inscribed by “modern” traditional healers operating in global, urban, capitalistic, and at times multicultural environments. Thus, the beads may be perceived as a material reflection of broader socioeconomic and cultural processes. In the absence

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of any formal or canonical institutional base, bead use began to enjoy a greater degree of personal and local interpretation.

Replacing the ancient, rare, and handmade unique Bedouin healing beads with the more common, uniform, manufactured blue glass beads to combat the evil eye could be framed in terms of the transformation from folk to popular culture. This distinction between folk (in our case, ancient beads) and popular (contemporary beads) was emphasized by Hasan-Rokem (2000), who described folklore as a socially combined effort, whereas popular culture derives from a reciprocal process somewhat akin to commodity relationships. The new beads, used by Bedouin, Palestinians, and at times even Jews originating in Islamic countries, are no longer ethnically marked but are part of a global capitalistic economy, whose patterns penetrate even the deepest human emotions of pain and hope. Consequently, the changes in use of healing beads are evident in material culture (the shift from folk to popular), as well as in traditional healing practices (from physical to spiritual/magical healing). In a surprising correlation, the less spiritually and magically laden material (manufactured beads of glass or plastic) is used to treat the problems presumed to originate in the spiritual realm (such as witchcraft and the evil eye), even if their manifestations are physical. When plastic enters the world of beads (and other aspects of consumption in Bedouin society), belief in the power of materials—such as stone or coral—declines. Plastic has no meaning or value, as it was created by human beings. As plastic and even cheap glass are devoid of material importance, it is easy to transform them into a means of countermanding unnatural and even supernatural powers and entities.

These changes—from physical to spiritual (treatment) and from folk to popular (artifacts)—characterize the Bedouin in southern Israel as a community undergoing extensive economic and cultural transformations. In this sociocultural space between tradition and modernity, between preservation and acculturation, the Bedouin use commodified artifacts to heal their wounded spiritual realm. They apply modern industrial products to treat problems—such as perplexity, doubt, and frustration—that are evoked by those same transformations.

Betwixt and Between: Beads, Material Culture, and Social ChangeThe difference between ancient and new healing beads is not only the distinction between folk and popular culture but also between two types of artifacts or commodities: Mass-produced objects (millions of exact copies sold at

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competitive prices) and one-of-a-kind (and consequently rare) objects (Coles 2005; Dowdy 2008; Munari 2008 [1966]; Raizman 2003). While the mass-produced object is valued first for its function and competitive price and then for its quantity, the designed object is not procured as a tool but as a work of art to be displayed on special occasions. In an industrial market, however, mass-produced objects (including beads) are indeed designed to perform a designated function and consequently demand standardized materials, less emphasis on aesthetics, and reasonable prices.

By contrast, healing beads, both modern and ancient, reflect a complex relationship among industry, religion, art, and society. The beads are not treated as a commodity but as bonding artifacts, signifying the weakening bonds among elders, youth and socio-religious conventions and beliefs. For example, a given bead’s value depends on its frequency of use and “biography.” Furthermore, in a world of modern pharmaceuticals, which vanish after their consumption, the beads remain as a material reminder of their efficacy. Nevertheless, as this article demonstrates, even this epitaph to tradition is changing rapidly because of the numerous socioeconomic changes sweeping the region. As in Craig’s (2011) description of poetry interaction and production, the healing beads negotiate the challenges posed by the globalization of culture, challenges in which restricted production (Bourdieu 1996) is promoted despite global market pressures that result in homogenizing trends (see Armstrong 2000; Held and Kotler 1999).

As in other cultural contexts (Stine et al. 1996), beads convey sociocultural meaning and promote information concerning political, religious, and cultural affiliation. Even when analyzed, the beads remain enchanted and magical (Hill 2007). Their materials—stone, glass, or plastic—are not disconnected from the social realm (as noted in Pinney 2005), nor is the human element detached from the nonhuman. The beads should be analyzed as part of the social and cultural fabric. Following Craig’s (2011) remarks in another context, beads are “vessels of meaning” (and not only vessels for meaning); they are involved in social interactions that create and maintain identity and community. As material objects, beads are both cultural products and cultural producers, not only because of their physical characteristics (stone vs. plastic or glass), but because of the ways in which they circulate in the community. Choosing which of the healing beads to use—the old or the new—denotes a declaration and an affiliation to a certain identity. Choosing one bead over another means identifying oneself with a specific community, norms, way of life, and culture.

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