#Ethnology Lecture : Cultural Memories of the Red Sea
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With #KAUSTOfficial
This seminar presents and interprets #ethnographic #data collected from the #African and #Arabian Red Sea shores. Putting the traditional dhow at the centre of the present discourse, the voices of the maritime communities fill a historical gap of the past one hundred years. Written data show why the harbour towns were booming with Indian and South Asian #trade while oral accounts elucidate whether the proliferation of European and Asian vessels brought about change with the opening of the #Suez Canal in 1869. At the peak of this trading scenario, the pearling industry was also at its height as hundreds of #pearling dhows were employed. This seminar explores how the maritime communities perceive this maritime landscape, their engagement with the physical and human geography of the African and Arabian Red Sea and how the dhow survived in spite of its downturn.
About the speacker :
Dr. Dionisius A. Agius is a Fellow of the #BritishAcademy and Emeritus Al-Qasimi Professor of Arabic Studies and Islamic Material Culture at the #UniversityOfExeter. He is also Distinguished Professor affiliated to #KingAbdulazizUniversity, Jeddah. An Arabist, #ethnographer, cultural historian and philologist, his focus is on the maritime landscapes, the sea peoples and their material culture of the Indian Ocean. He is author of many books, the latest one being: The Life of the Red Sea Dhow: A Cultural History of #Seaborne #Exploration in the #IslamicWorld (IB #Tauris 2019).
