412 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



Going to the mill is a social occasion, eagerly looked forward to, and 

 the more people waiting to grind their wheat the better, for then there 

 is an opportunity to exchange gossip for hours, perhaps all night. 

 TMien the grain is ground the miller takes a small fraction of the flour 

 for his fee and the farmer returns home. This whole-wheat stone- 

 ground flour is made into thin, unleavened loaves of bread, in the 

 form of huge pancakes. The baking is done by the womenfolk who 

 use a community oven. Baking day is anticipated as a kind of social 

 meeting, in spite of the fact that every phase of the process of living 

 is attended by a lavish expenditure of time and labor. 



A certain amount of wheat brought in by the gleaners in small 

 sheaves is beaten out by hand on the doorstep at home. A pleasant 

 afternoon was passed in the company of a man and his wife so en- 

 gaged. It was a period of interesting gossip for the onlookers, but 

 Mrs. N. was working all the time as she talked. Besides doing chores 

 of this kind, this well-preserved woman cares for her family of eight 

 children, works in the field, helps thresh and winnow wheat, carries 

 water from the spring and gathers firewood in the rocky hills, makes 

 dung cakes for fuel, and so on. She does not belong to a bridge club, 

 nor does she attend cocktail parties. 



TREE CROPS 



The annual crops are by no means sufficient to support the people of 

 Dahr, who engage in a number of other activities to supplement their 

 income. Perennial crops — figs, olives, and grapes — are produced, too, 

 but not enough of them to make the village self-sufficient. One good 

 sign is that the Government (in 1952) inaugurated the policy of dis- 

 tributing fig trees and grapevines to those farmers who would plant 

 them. The quality of the olives could be improved if, instead of being 

 beaten off the trees by sticks, they were picked by hand ; but this "is not 

 the custom." Mr. M., former moukhtar (mayor) , of the village, when 

 asked what would be the best thing for the village, replied that more 

 terraces should be built and more tree crops planted, thus increasing 

 the capital as well as the income of everyone. This suggestion was 

 countered by Mr. N. : "It takes lots of capital to establish vineyards 

 and orchards of olive and fig trees, and one must have enough to live 

 on while waiting for the trees to mature. It^s all very well to talk of 

 long-term investments, but what do we eat meanwhile?" This is the 

 problem that confronts most villages, for the demands of the popula- 

 tion on resources is too great and too continuously applied to allow of 

 capital accumulation. This pressure is so great, and so immediate, 

 that in certain years fields are not planted, for the simple reason that 

 all the grain has been eaten and at the time of planting the people are 

 unable to buy seed. The question at once arises : Why does the Gov- 



