ABSTRACT
The family is at the root of village survival in Kuwait. Through its day-to-day relations and commitments it has been basic to the existence of a Palestinian society in Kuwait. This chapter addresses the question of how the families that made up a village or town in Palestine survived as a unit in Kuwait. It focuses on three informal social occasions that extend from the family to the village or town community: marriage, death, and the feast. Without these three social bases, the Palestinians of Kuwait would not have evolved their village networks. Marriage, the feast, death, and birth were full of ritual, symbolism, and integrative process, which provided them with the capacity to become the social foundations of village survival in exile. The survival of village social ties experienced through ceremonial occasions is just one expression of Palestinian commitment to the lost homeland. An added integrative force derives from people’s emotional attachment to the original village.
