45 Years with the Harasiis

Overview

In this lecture Professor Dawn Chatty of the University of Oxford discusses the Omani Harasiis, a camel herding tribe she has studied for over 45 years.

The Harasiis occupy the central desert of Oman, between the Empty Quarter (Rub’ al-Khali) and the Arabian Sea. They are the most remote of all the mobile herding communities in the country, holding an area about the size of Scotland. Until the 1950s their territory was a waterless gravel plain.

The talk documents Professor Chatty’s contact with the Harasiis from 1979 onwards, and her continuing engagement as they have responded to profound changes in their physical and social environment, showing resilience and adaptability in equal measure.

More information, photographs and interviews about the Harasiis can be found on Professor Chatty’s website: nomadsinoman.com. Professor Chatty was instrumental in creating the Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation, more information can be found here: danadeclaration.org.

SPEAKER

Dawn Chatty is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration at the University of Oxford, and was Director of the Refugee Studies Centre from 2011 to 2014. She is a social anthropologist whose ethnographic interests lie in the Middle East, particularly with nomadic pastoral tribes and refugee young people. More information about her research and publications can be found here: https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/people/dawn-chatty