I relate differently to the built environment than most modern Americans who go from house to car to office to car to home again. My habits are different. My understanding is different.
It's hard to explain to people whose experience is so different from mine.
Architecture used to be by default passive solar design. It was vernacular architecture typically. And we've mostly list that context of building buildings oriented to their physical context.
It's a problem, one most modern people seem blind to.
I grew up spending most of my time outside and as a result I can appreciate the difference between a night spent under the stars and a night spent in your own comfortable home. I tend to linger outside and to gravitate outside if I visit someone else. There's a lot going on and it keeps me connected to things that are important to me.
Modernity does make you blind to many things simply because there is no opportunity for exposure to them and there are too many distractions, many of which you can carry in a pocket or wear on a wrist. Stepping away from can keep you grounded though.
I have followed maps over the years showing the expansion of Israeli claims and for that reason, it is unlikely to me that Bedouin people living on land where their people lived for generations, will not be affected by the expansion of Israel's territorial claims.
I am not an authority on the subject by any measure and welcome any corrections.
In general, the history of mankind doesn't favor indigenous people, regardless of how well they know their home environment. This is why so much historical knowledge is lost to later generations.
Fortunately, the Muslims went to great length to preserve the history and culture, even as globalization etches away at it. There's a reason we take great pride in how our religion and traditions have been preserved (all by the Grace of God of course).
All cultures should be as diligent about preserving their histories and traditions. Too much is lost when traditions are allowed to fade. By knowing each other's cultures we will better understand how connected we all are.
Their own history you mean. In Muslim majority countries, pre-islamic history is commercially exploited at best (Egypt), neglected as usual (Turkey) or destroyed at worst (Iraq, Afghanistan).