There is a particularly rich amount of intangible cultural heritage in Jordan. This comprises the traditions and living expressions of their ancestors that are inherited and passed on to their descendants. Some of these include oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, and festival celebrations. One example of cultural heritage from Jordan is the culture of Bedu. Traditionally in the southern part of Jordan, particularly near Petra and Wadi Rum, the Bedu people live in settled and nomadic communities living within semi-arid highlands and deserts. The Bedu traditionally live in tents, working with livestock. Their communities and culture have long been built beneath the stars of the sky.
Several Bedu tribes, namely the Bdul, the Ammarin, and the Saidiyyin, continue to use ancient Nabatean water-collecting cisterns and caves near Petra. The Bedu communities residing in these areas keep alive a traditional pastoral culture and related skills. Specific knowledge about the flora and fauna of Petra and Wadi Rum, traditional medicine, camel husbandry, tent-making, and tracking and climbing skills have also been preserved. Throughout history, the Bedu have developed an extensive knowledge of their environment and a complex moral code. This knowledge has been preserved in various forms of oral expression, including poetry, fairy tales, and songs. These forms are closely connected to particular places and the history of these communities.
Although tourism increased throughout the 20th century in Petra, the Bedu continued to practice traditional activities including goat pastoralism and rainfall farming of wheat and barley. In the late 1980s, most of the farming was done without the aid of mechanization. Farming was mainly done with ards, and the crops were harvested by hand. Milk is well-represented in the Bedouin culture by goat milk, which is taken daily to make a "yogurt," known as the "lambin" or laban, a highly storable dried form of yogurt. Bedu habitation included black tents made of woven goat hair, numerous masonry structures in natural rock shelters, and the occupation of empty Nabataean tombs. The latter has gained the most attention in recent years due to its visibility in the tourist trade.
Currently, the Bedou community lives a sedentary lifestyle. Their journeys have been made more difficult due to national borders. Education, housing, health care, and sanitation have all been provided, making a sedentary lifestyle more attractive to many. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the erosion of the skills developed over generations by the Bedu. Nowadays, only a small minority of the original Bedu continue to live a nomadic lifestyle. Those who do live a semi-nomadic lifestyle - sedentary during the growing season and nomadic during the rest of the year. However, when they drive their flocks across the desert, they continue a tradition that originated thousands of years ago.
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