General Supervisor

Methodology and data collection tools
The researcher used both the quantitative and qualitative methods in
accessing the changes that occurred in the Saudi community. She adopted the
social survey method, with the sample as one of the quantitative tools in data
collection. She also used the interview as one of the tools of data collection in
qualitative research owing to its importance in collecting a lot of information
on marital, familial, and relative relations. Further, the researcher used the
comparative method to get acquainted with the conditions of the family, its
life style, and the changes that took place before and after the discovery of oil.
Social situation in the Kingdom before the oil economic
boom
The tough environmental conditions and the desert climate in the Arabian
Peninsula imposed a pastoral economic system. In the pre-oil economic
boom era, the economy of the Kingdom had a subsistence-based system
characterized by a shortage of resources. The majority of the inhabitants used
to work as shepherds, moving from one place to another in quest for water
and pasture. Some inhabitants used to work in agriculture in valleys and rivers.
Apart from pastoral and agricultural activities, there were some urban towns
such as Riyadh, Mecca, Al-Medina, Jeddah, etc., which included some skins/
cloaks/dates-based small industries. There was also commercial activity in the
seasons of pilgrimage and umra. These tough environmental conditions and
the shortage of resources have pushed some of them to seek work in other
regions.
The traditional Saudi community is a pastoral society, where the tribe
constitutes its main unit, and plays important political and social roles in
organizing individual interpersonal relations. The members of the tribe are
interconnected by lineage and tribalism that were imposed on them by
the tough tribal life and the need to move and decamp (Abu Alayya, 1976).
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Al-hmoula (literally, cargo or load) is metaphorically a group of families
interconnected by genealogical lineage, and having the same ethnic origin
going back to up to five generations. For instance, people from some regions
of the Kingdom such as the Najd area are determined to know the ethnic
origin of an individual, and to protect them from mixing from other unknown
ethnicities to them.
The family in the traditional Saudi community
The prevailing form of family in the traditional Saudi community is the extended
family, which is made up of three or more generations, sometimes complexly
formed. It includes a number of brothers, their children, and grandchildren.
The members of the same family used to live in the same common multi-room
house. Often than not, the members of the same nuclear family (husband and
wife and their unmarried children) used to live in the same room. The size of
the house varies depending on the various social and economic standards of
the family (Al-Khateeb, 1981).
Ownership in the traditional Saudi community is a collective ownership
registered in the name of the whole family. The eldest man in the family is the
absolute master in terms of decisions about the family’s properties. However,
all have the right to benefit from this property, including land, date trees,
agriculture, wells, cattle, etc.
Marriage is the first step in family formation. The traditional Saudi community
looks at marriage with respect and veneration. For that, fathers in all of the
pastoral, rural, and urban regions used to insist on marrying their sons and
daughters at an early age. According to the Saudi community, marriage is
a rule of life, and a kind of protection for man and woman from deviation.
The preferred marital age used to be 14 to 16 for girls and 16 to 18 for boys.
Prearranged marriage was the prevailing type of marriage in the past, and often
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