ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes systematically the demographic, economic, and group status structure in Shefar-A'm for several periods. Demographic structure includes: the main components of population growth, changes in population movement, and the changing demographic balance among the main groups in the community. Shefar-A'm is located on the western fringes of Lower Galilee, in the center of a triangle approximately 18 kilometers from Acre, Haifa, and Nazareth. As a service center Shefar-A'm attracted many immigrants who settled there during the various periods. Shefar-A'm was one of the first settlements in the north to be granted city rights and to be administered by an elected city council. In Shefar-A'm, like other agricultural areas in Palestine, agriculture was extensive, with two main seasons, winter and summer. Several documents indicate that the Bedouin had intensive relationships with the Shefar-A'm population, both socially and in terms of economic relationships.
