This work comprises several studies dealing with the society, economy, ideology and power among the mainly tribal, semi-pastoral communities living and moving around the southern arid margins of the southern Levant, particularly the Negev desert, southern Transjordan (ancient Edom) and north-eastern Sinai during the first millennium BCE. All studies revolve around a central concept: the phenomenon of tribalism. In few words, tribalism constituted the framework around which were structured the local groups' social institutions, economy, politics and ideology. Key topics such as the manufacture and circulation of local ceramics, the exploitation and trade of copper and incense, the local socio-political fluctuations and emergence of local chiefdoms, and the ideology of kinship and segmentation are studied under this light.