Anthropological issues of the communities of al-‘Ulā oasis: Scientific and synthesis note

Production of a report for Afalula (French Agency for the Development of al-Ula):
Anthropological issues of the communities of al-‘Ulā oasis: Scientific and synthesis note
Vincent Battesti
AFALULA, Paris, 28 p. + appendices
May 15^th 2020
[For an Oasis Museum project at al-‘Ulā.]
– https://hal.science/hal-02616089

\confidential report\

– Abstract:

This scientific and synthesis note is based on very preliminary results of field research carried out in the oasis of al-‘Ulā (Saudi Arabia), for the moment only undertaken by the author and never described before; results are too preliminary to be disseminated as is, of course. This memo is also based on much longer expertise from other oasis fieldwork, particularly in the Sahara. The following pages offer a broad perspective on oases, and it is only then that the case of al-‘Ulā is inserted into this overall framework. The reader will bear in mind that it is sometimes possible to transfer the general situation of oases to the particular case of al-‘Ulā, although this is never guaranteed and far from being always appropriate. The general case should only be seen as a range of possibilities. This text is intended to be as didactic as possible. It only touches each time on questions that deserve or have deserved much more consequent developments (to which one can refer; the bibliography is, however, only indicative.) Last but not least: this is a scientific note on work in progress. Not only can it not be disseminated as such, but a museum, which must present a viewpoint of local realities, must certainly be concerned about what local communities wish to display of themselves and avoid a top/down process (i.e. identity assignments). However, this requires ethnographic fieldwork that has not been done. Some of the data here is controversial, or even comes under local taboos, which it remains hazardous, in many respects, to disseminate without a preliminary survey.