CHILDREN’S TRADITIONAL COSTUMES IN NAJD BEDOUIN SETTLEMENT AREAS IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

This research is concerned with studying children’s traditional costumes in Najd Bedouin settlement areas through documentation and classification of children’s traditional costumes and accessories in the research area. The research also identifies the techniques used for the making and decoration of these costumes in terms of their fabric, colors and sources and make a comparision between children’s traditional costumes in the Bedouin settlements of Najd and those of children in a number of regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This research employs the historical descriptive methodology as well as a multitude of techniques and tools to collect the scientific research materials, thereby ensuring that full and accurate information and data are obtained. Tools have included the following: questionnaires, personal interviews, audio recordings, observation, museums and acquisitions, traditional and digital photography, and illustrations. The study has documented the traditional types of children’s costumes in terms of their names, making techniques, the types of fabrics used, and decoration styles. The study concluded that traditional children’s costumes in Najd Bedouin settlement areas are a miniature of adults’ costumes, particularly outer costumes such as Maqtaa’, Mirwaden, and Kartah and discussed suitability of children’s costumes to various age groups and their versatility depending on the needs of children in each group, the study also found the existence of a similarity between children’s traditional costumes in Najd Bedouin settlement areas and those of children in a number of Kingdom’s regions and desert areas in Arab countries.Major recommendations of the research have included the following: creation of a website for folk heritage of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia encompassing all Kingdom regions and cities, encouraging and supporting individuals who seek to preserve this heritage as well as makers and craftsmen and creating contemporary job opportunities for them to protect the folk heritage which is threatened by obsolescence, encouraging scientific research which aims at revealing the characteristics of this folk creativity and at utilizing it to develop the society by collecting, displaying and studying folk heritage specimens.