The Sanusi Bedouins of Libya, also known as the Libyan Bedouins, Sanusiya or Senussi of Cyrenaica, are a semi-nomadic people living mainly in the desert regions of western Libya and eastern Egypt (Figure 1). Due to their relative isolation and strict social hierarchy, Libyan Bedouins have retained the traditions, practices, and language of their Arab ancestors. However, they also placed great importance on religious learning, largely due to the actions of Sayyid Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi, the Great Sanusi. Bedouins have complex kinship patterns that provide the best means of social integration and stratification. Because Bedouins are Sunni Muslims and therefore believe that dancing, singing, and public displays of emotion are sinful, poetry acts as the only socially acceptable cathartic outlet for intense or otherwise inexpressible emotions. The ethnographic present of the sources extends from 1949 to 1986, giving for this article an ethnographic present of approximately 1967. Method of Subsistence The Libyan Bedouins are a pastoral people, moving as needed across the Sahara Desert with their sheep, goats and camels. Their movements depend largely on the seasons due to the lack of vegetation and water in the lowlands during the dry season. They also cultivate small plots of cereals during the rainy season on the desert plateaus and oases of Libya (Behnke, 1980). Political Structure The Bedouins are a tribal culture, as defined by Lewellen, with some traits tending toward chieftaincy. Their patriarchal leaders are chosen from within the tribe and possess authority without power. Legal disputes are settled within the tribe by local sheikhs (political leaders) or imams (religious leaders) who are typical of ...... middles of paper ...... ations who believe that poetry is an acceptable medium. Recent political and social upheavals in Libya and Egypt have prevented the continuation of anthropological participant observation research with the Bedouin people. Works Cited Abu-Lughod, L. (1986). Veiled feelings: honor and poetry in a Bedouin society. Berkeley: University of California Press. 400 pages. HRAF. Adler, R.B., Proctor II, R.F. (2013). Look out, look in. Cengages learning. 430 pages. Kindle edition. Behnke, R.H. (1980). The shepherds of Cyrenaica: ecology, economy and kinship among the Bedouins of Eastern Libya. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 197 pages. HRAF. Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1949). The Sanusi of Cyrenaica. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press. 240 pages. HRAF. Lewellen, T. C. (2003). Types of pre-industrial political systems. Political anthropology and introduction (3rd ed.,). Westport, CT: Praeger.