| Born: 1936, Israel |
Academic Qualifications:Ph.D. 1972
Professor 1995.
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Academic Positions:
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Research Interests:
Culture and social anthropology of nomadic pastoralists in the Middle East and East Africa. Economic anthropology. Communes and cooperatives organizations. |
Research Projects:
Villages for shepherds: the feasibility of plans toengage the nomadic pastoralists?Bedouin in the Negev, Israel, as well as other Middle Eastern and East Africanpastoralists in efforts to enrich the desert flora (?savanization?) so that it can be used for grazing their herds in situ. The regression in socialist economy and cooperation in Israel?s rural sector. The kibbutz and the moshav. The market of Beer-Sheva. Open-air markets in Bulgaria. |
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Abstracts of Current Research:- The Economy of the Market Place: The Bedouin Market in Beer-Sheva has been the focus of our observations for many years. Now, through collaboration with a Bulgarian research team, our study of market behaviors also includes that of the Balkans?former communist states undergoing transition.
- Towns and Villages for Herders: Prof. Kressel?s research concerns the socio-economic implications of livestock breeding in arid Negev lands. Current anthropological literature regarding the Bedouin is mainly concerned with the trend of transition. The contrast between the desert and the town and the one-way continuum of pastoralists who have relinquished their traditional trade in exchange for other, more modern, modes of existence has received prime attention. The anthropology of the Bedouin settling in the Bedouin townships in the Beer-Sheva valley is the subject a new study. However, an alternative path of change?modernization of pastoralism and of the pastoral way of life in arid zones?despite its merits has been largely overlooked. Prof. Kressel?s team examines the alternative of Bedouin rural settlements, in association with the Ministry of Science and Technology. He also works with Dr. H. Bruins in a study funded by the NIRP to implement a modern pastoral model among the Maasai and the Turkana herders in Kenya.
- The demise of the cooperative set-up in Israel?s rural sector (the kibbutz and the moshav): Adherence to socialist ideology, the guiding light for the founders of the Kibbutz and the moshav (Jewish youth of the post-WWII generation) has declined sharply as a result of a shift of interests and concerns in the ideational climate current in the West today. While the moshav liquidated its cooperative institutions (schools, mutual financial guarantees, cooperative marketing arrangements) more than a decade ago, many kibbutzim are doing this now. Of course, in the kibbutz?as opposed to the moshav?there is the problem of how to privatize commom assets. Our research of this painful transition therefore follows the two distinct sociological paths upon which the kibbutz and the moshav have embarked. In the kibbutz, for example, members tend to stop working for the sake of the ?common good? and seek employment outside the kibbutz, in order to fulfil their personal desires. (The salary is still handed over to the kibbutz.) However, these mobile individuals are then among the first to leave the kibbutz altogether. Hired labor has been replacing the members who work elsewhere; many members leave the kibbutz in the mornings and strangers come in to work in their stead.
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Publications:- Kressel, G., Bar-Zvi, S. & Abu-Rbi`a, A.. The Charm of Graves: Mourning and Graveside Rituals among the Negev Bedouin. : (1998)
- Kressel, G.. The Bedouin Market: The Axis around which Beer-Sheva Developed in the British Mandatory Period. Nomadic Peoples 39: 1-28 (1997)
- Kressel, G.. When the Good of the Commune is Reward Enough: Careers in the Kibbutz Endeavor. Megamot 38: 547-577 (1997)
- Kressel, G.. The Eastern Anthropologist (guest editor w/D. Handman) The Eastern Anthropologist Lucknow, India: (1997)
- Kressel, G.. Ascendancy Through Aggression: Anatomy of a Blood Dispute between Urbanized Bedouin Wiesbaden Otto Harrassowitz: (1996)
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| Keywords:Bedouin society, Bedouin culture, Shepherding changes (nomadic to non-nomadic), Kibbutz, Moshav, Economy. |
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Phones:
- Phone: 972-8-6596860
- Fax: 972-8-6596867
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