I've been to Wadi Rum and eaten food cooked in a zarb. The food itself wasn't anything special; it was standard fare. The process of cooking using the zarb, however, was fascinating.
Also, RE: Wadi Rum - it's an eerily quiet and beautiful place to go to. Definitely recommend it.
> From killing the goat to cooking the yoghurt, mansaf takes several hours to make. So if guests are in a hurry, the alternative is zarb: a dish of vegetables and meat, like lamb, slow-cooked in an underground pit that is the Bedouin answer to barbecue. Although zarb can be left for two or three hours, it can also be ready in a third of the time, and it doesn’t need to be watched – making it a faster, and more convenient, alternative.
Note in that guide it says it may take up to 12 hours depending on the size of the pig. So to answer your question a lamb cooks a lot quicker because it's a lot smaller (and probably broken up into parts). And I guess PNG pigs are bigger then Hawaiian pigs too reading that yours take 8 hours.
Cultural nostalgia. I grew up in the middle east. I watched wealth, and less-wealthy, Saudis pitch their tents on the edge of the empty quarter and pretend to be nomads for a weekend. But look at the tents. They are huge. Look at all the stuff they bring. They are living not like nomads, but bedu kings. Every culture does this. It's called car camping.
Look at what Bedouin life was actually like, life without the 4x4s hauling the tents and coolers. Cram ten or twenty people, and more than a few animals, into each of those tents. Then you understand need for ridged social norms.
Try eating meat when fuel, material to burn, is more precious than water. This isn't crispy BBQ.
I'm interested in the article's mention of unquestioning hospitality in the desert.
I wonder if it is a clever survival mechanism to just receive guests as they come, since guests know you'll be friendly, so that nobody is hostile to one another and wastes unnecessary resources (by fighting) in a harsh place.
Generosity and hospitality are considered among the highest virtues in Arab culture. But you are spot on, their origin lies in the harshness of the environment. You give a stranger in the desert food and shelter, knowing full well that it might be you in need of those things in a months time.
The culture of hospitality was so developed that even sworn enemies can ask for shelter (for a limited period of time).
As the parent mentions, the origins may have been improving your chances of getting help in the harsh environment, these qualities then formed into the highest virtues in the culture.
Hatim Tai (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatim_al-Tai - metioned in the Arabian Nights) is a person famous for his generosity in Arab folklore. One of the stories goes that Hatim was very fond of horses and had one particular horse that was most beloved to him. A certain emperor having heard of his renowned generosity decided to test Hatim Tai. The emperor sent an envoy from his court to Hatim and told him to bring Hatim's beloved horse back, as a willingly given gift or not.
When the envoy reached the land of Tai it was the season when the horses would
be sent out to pasture in the meadows. However as generosity and hospitality
demands Hatim could not receive a guest without offering him a generous
welcome. So a feast was prepared and the guest was received. During the course
of the meal the guest explained the reason for his visit and said that he was
here to take from him his most prized possession, his beloved horse. Upon
hearing this Hatim expressed remorse and said that he wished the guest had
informed him of his request earlier. Having barely any food at the camp and
all the other horses out to pasture, Hatim couldn't offer a measly meal to the
guest so he had already sacrificed his beloved horse and that was the meal
they were having.
I think it's more a case that if you help others, you know they'll help you in the future.
The most generous people I've ever met have been in developing countries, or from developing countries. I lived in a backpackers hostel in New Zealand with a bunch of Latin Americans for a while, and they were always sharing everything. Basically everything was communal property, it was like we were all family. Back home, a lot of them didn't have a lot, a few of them were even sending money back home to help their parents out, since they were earning (relatively) good money in New Zealand. It really put into perspective the privilege of being born in a developed country.
This is pretty much how it is in any sufficiently rural area regardless of the amount of rainfall. Everyone is generally helpful and hospitable unless there's a reason not to be.
Not really, the hospitality deals with the unknown in a charitable way. There is no presumption of reciprocation nor measure of resources expended. It is not karma.
It is most likely adaptive because it allows for forming social bonds at all.
Without this there is no starting point when there is limited contact between people. (as is the case for nomads)
A side point, western view has twisted karma. The true meaning (and read more about it if interested as I've probably twisted it a bit too) seems more towards 'by putting more good/bad in the world, there is more of itm therefore more of the same is likely to return to you and this good/bad you create is developing you as that person'.
The idea of hospitality as a duty or moral obligation can be found in a variety of cultures. I found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitality to have some interesting examples. The Pashtunwali code is particularly interesting.
Pretty much all cultures have some sort of hospitality notion, but a handful of cultures elevate this to an almost sacred duty.
Well of course it's a survival mechanism! If you live somewhere with a harsh environment like that, you learn to view the environment as a greater enemy than people.
Besides, giving people food and drink when they come to your house is just common sense. I mean, hell, I've never lived in a tent in the desert, but if someone's coming to my house as a guest, I damn well make sure I have something for them. If I don't, I cook, and preferably I cook something nice.
This story about being impressed with barbecue Because Hospitality is a little exoticizing to my eyes, but then again, "Bedouin hospitality" isn't that dissimilar from my Jewish culture's attitude on these matters, modulo the exacting etiquette around coffee and time-limits.
I've eaten food cooked in this way including bread baked by making a fire, letting it die down, keeping the embers going nicely and then covering it with sand, placing the bread in a cloth on top of the hot sand which is then covered in sand and left.
I had a similar reaction. It seemed strange to present this as the "answer" to barbecue, as if barbecue had been developed as a challenge to other cultures to try to be as good. Why must everything today be so adversarial. Can't we just appreciate an interesting cooking method from another culture.
I don't see it as adversarial when X is Y's answer to Z, but just showing that different cultures solve problems in different ways. The best thing to do is look at the alternatives and see if they work for you.
I love cooking and have borrowed lots of ideas from Asian and Latino cultures in what I make. I'd hate think someone would accuse me, a white American in the suburbs, of cultural appropriation or being adversarial... I'm just borrowing ideas I like. There is nothing new under the sun... all creative people just take existing things and modify them or combine them in new ways.
What you are describing is some form of cultural exchange. You have received some expression of another culture and "answered" it by modifying or combining them with your existing cooking repertoire.
My point is that I don't think the article established that the profiled Bedouin people are responding to an external stimulus.
Also, RE: Wadi Rum - it's an eerily quiet and beautiful place to go to. Definitely recommend it.