al-‘Ulā AS Project: Anthropological survey of al-‘Ulā community and its oasis system

2019-2024 Project.
Principal investigator: Dr Vincent Battesti

Located in the northwest of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the oasis of al-‘Ulā, considered up until recently a remote and isolated territory, is the recent focus of an ambitious development project by the government of the Saudi monarchy (led by the Royal Commission for AlUla).

Prior to any ambitious project, an in-depth study must obviously be carried out to determine, here, the true nature of al-‘Ulā oasis. The challenge is to rely on other oasis cases without overlooking the local anthropological and ecological specificities and to highlight its social and economic functioning. As al-‘Ulā is mainly an agricultural terroir, oasis agriculture deserves special attention (Battesti, 2005), and in particular, the date palm tree (Phoenix dactylifera L.)—see the project “Ethnographic, genetic, and morphometric analyses of the date palm agrobiodiversity in al-‘Ulā oasis” (dir. by Drs. Vincent Battesti & Muriel Gros- Balthazard)—, the engineering plant of this complex and ingenious system created by humankind. But even beyond the date palm: an oasis is a full socio-ecosystem, and a precious natural and cultural heritage. It is the combination of a complex multilayered agriculture system, cultivated species, and local knowledge and practices. A first focus should aim to understand how this system is working and how it has recently evolved. What is its agrobiodiversity, how can it even be measured? Experience (Battesti, 2013; Battesti & Gros-Balthazard et al., 2018) shows us that such an assessment cannot be carried out effectively without considering the local categorization of life, animals and plants, if we do not lose sight over the fact that the local population and its traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) and know-how are at the origin of and have maintained this agroecological diversity (a local human population with its different identities and often complex social organizations that must therefore also be included in the study).

From a scholarly standpoint, little is known about the current state of the oasis. We are unaware of any sociological or ethnological analysis of the oasis (but a book published in Saudi Arabia by Naseef, 1995), just as there is no evaluation of the richness of the local agrobiodiversity of oasis plants and animal. We here propose an understanding of al-‘Ulā oasis with a general and interdisciplinary diagnosis aiming at the relevant local anthropological issues. We propose an assessment of the local agrobiodiversity and its origins, undertaken by a multidisciplinary approach, combining anthropology, ethnoecology (including ethnobotany and ethnozoology), and agronomy. The objective is also to describe the functioning of the oasis as a whole, as a complex result of long-term and daily adjustments by humans and non-humans, by including in our research obviously also on the urban environment and the habitat of the humans and their evolutions.

A doctoral student has been recruited on this al-‘Ulā AS research project for a four-year (2019-2024) thesis in social anthropology (CNRS): Leo Marty.
An agricultural engineer has been recruited on this al-‘Ulā AS research project in 2023 (CNRS): Élise Gaury.

al-‘Ulā AS research Project

: A retired Saudi ’alawī landowner in his bustān in the old palm grove of al-’Ulā at the time of date palm pollination, KSA, March 2023, © Vincent Battesti | Un propriétaire saoudien ‘alawī, à la retraite, dans son bustān dans la vieille palmeraie d’al-‘Ulā au moment de la pollinisation des palmiers dattiers, KSA, mars 2023, © Vincent Battesti