“Oasis, Coast, and Mountain: Land/Waterscapes of Culture and History in the Arabian Gulf”

This free presentation will be given by Professor Steven C. Caton at the 24th annual Sabbagh Lecture at Tucson Marriott University Park, 880 E. 2nd St., Tucson at 7:00 PM.* Our idea of the Arabian Peninsula might be that of an uninhabited (and inhospitable) desert but this obscures a more complex reality encompassing desert oasis, coastal port settlement, and terraced-mountain village (to name only the most prominent zones, each of which has not only had its own environmental and cultural history but has also been intricately connected to the other complementary zones in fascinating ways).  This lecture will look at these zones as “land-water nexuses” where water (ground water, sea, and rain) has been made to come into contact with land (desert sand, beach, and mountain) by humans to create distinctive land/waterscapes. How has land and water been managed in them historically? How is land and water being managed in them today? And what might we expect of their futures? The lecture will try to answer these questions by combining archaeology, history, and ethnography. Steven C. Caton is the Khaled bin Abdullah bin Abdulrahman Al Saud Professor of Contemporary Arab Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. The University of Arizona School of Anthropology presents the annual Sabbagh Lectures on the Arab cultures of the Middle East from an anthropological perspective, through the generosity of Drs. Entisar and Adib Sabbagh
* This is not an Old Pueblo Archaeology Center event. For more information contact the U of A School of Anthropology at 520-621-2585 or anthro@email.arizona.edu.