World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies
Barcelona, July 19th - 24th 2010
< NOT_DEFINED backto SUMMARY OF PANELS· NOT_DEFINED date: FRI 23, 2.30-4.30 pm
· NOT_DEFINED language: English, Français
· NOT_DEFINED description:
Paper presenter: Julian Jansen van Rensburg (PhD Candidate, University of Exeter), “Integrating the isolated: The Socotra Archipelago”
The Socotra Archipelago is a small archipelago lying in the Arabian Sea east of the Horn of Africa. The Socotra Archipelago of Yemen comprises of the islands of Socotra, Abd al Kuri, Samha and Darsa of which Socotra has received the most scholarly interest due to its rich historical narrative. The island of Socotra has also attracted the interest of many scholars for its apparent insularity, interior Bedouin population, past Christian population and famous Socotrian Aloe and Dragons Blood. This has resulted in the maritime littoral community at best ignored and at worst completely forgotten about when looking at the island of Socotra. Recent evidence of Indian, Palmyrean and Greek epigraphs found in a cave on the north coast of Socotra has called for a serious reassessment of Socotra’s apparent insularity and the role of its maritime littoral population in Socotra’s history. This paper will seek to reassess Socotra’s remoteness and apparent insularity by readdressing the historical and archaeological narratives by looking at the maritime littoral community, the maritime cultural landscape and the trade that Socotra has been involved in. The author’s reassessment of the historical and archaeological narratives is done in conjunction with recent ethnographical fieldwork into the fishermen on Socotra in order to provide a richer cultural picture of Socotra both in the past and present. In understanding the maritime traditions of these multi-cultural littoral communities on Socotra it is possible to elucidate the various overseas influences that have played a role in the cultural makeup of the islands. Another aspect of this paper will draw upon the historical, archaeological and ethnographical sources to demonstrate the differing social and cultural perceptions of Socotra from the time of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea to the present day. Based on an understanding of the maritime environment within which Socotra finds itself and the utilisation of the landscape / seascape by people in the present and the past, not only will this paper demonstrate the changing perceptions through time but also the changing social and cultural perceptions.
Paper presenter: Hande Ozkan (Teaching Assistant, Yale University), “Rural Studies in the 21st century and New Approaches in Anthropology: Representations, Uses and Management of Forests in Turkey”
This paper will provide an assessment of rural studies in Turkey and explore how this tradition can be blended with new theoretical approaches in anthropology and sister disciplines. In societies without a colonial past, like Turkey, ethnographic research is not limited to anthropology. In this context, it is possible to start the rural ethnographic research tradition with the Hygenic and Social Geography of Turkey series of the 1920s. The peasantism movement of the Kemalist period was followed by the tradition elaborated by Paul Stirling, and rural studies went through their heyday with the village monographies of the 1960s and 1970s. These years also witnessed the shift from villages to towns as the unit of research. Ethnographies of Turkey have recently gained momentum both in Turkey and in academic circles abroad. However, parallel to this development, the weight of urban centers in research has practically created an urban-rural divide, concealing the connections between the urban and the rural. This paper will explore the legacy and the future of rural studies in Turkey by investigating the representations, uses and management of forests in Turkey throughout the 20th century. The silence in social science research with regard to forest villagers who make up half of the rural population is perhaps one of the most striking examples of this divide. Yet forestry is closely tied to the Turkish modernization project of nationalism and economic development. Moreover it is situated at the junction between the urban and the rural. Through the case of how forests are imagined, experienced and managed, this paper will investigate the processes of citizenship and state making in Turkey in the twentieth century, thereby emphasizing the need for a new generation of rural research in ethnographies of Turkey. Combined with the proliferation of new research trends in rural, agricultural and environmental matters carried out in the world today, a critical look at this tradition in Turkey will form the basis for a new rural studies tradition. This new tradition will also serve as a channel for environmental anthropology, an inter-disciplinary approach that has recently established itself in academic circles to take a hold in anthropologies of Turkey.
Paper presenter: Khalil Sakhri(Dr., Faculté de Médecine de Sétif), « La mise en ouvre de la convention cadre pour la lutte contre le tabac dans la région du Maghreb »
La ratification, la mise en œuvre effective et l’application de la Convention Cadre pour la Lutte Anti Tabac (CCLAT) constituent pour les initiateurs, les bénéficiaires et les personnes chargées de son application plus qu’un défi. Non seulement, il faut se convaincre que sa ratification n’est nullement une fin en soi, mais encore faut-il se rassurer que sa mise en application ne fera pas d’elle un traité mort-né comme ce fut le cas de bien d’autres initiatives pourtant louables. De ce fait, le passage obligé pour que la CCLAT soit à la fois accueillie par les populations et prise par les décideurs comme un instrument, vecteur du développement intégré est un devoir. Établir un regard croisé sur les expériences passées et le futur, faire le pont entre les différentes réalités géopolitiques, évaluer le poids des changements afin de baliser la voie pour la CCLAT est déterminant dans la région du Maghreb. En effet, nul n’ignore la position stratégique qu’occupe la région du Maghreb sur le plan géographique, politique, économique en cette phase de la mondialisation. Région tampon entre l’Afrique Sub-saharienne, la région Méditerranée et le moyen Orient : ainsi le succès de la CCLAT au Maghreb pourra avoir un effet multiplicateur vers plusieurs régions du monde. Pour une meilleure mise en œuvre et application de la CCLAT au Maghreb, il s’avère nécessaires de connaître les réalisations prises comme un atout, les contraintes, les obstacles à surmonter et les perspectives, qui sont les voies et moyens à exploiter au mieux. Nos hypothèses se réfèrent à recenser le maximum de textes législatifs existants dans la lutte anti tabac et la réalisation de l’enquête pour identifier les entraves et les contraintes pour une meilleure mise en œuvre de la CCLAT. Ceci permettra à la fin de sortir avec des perspectives réalistes et réalisables. La collecte des données se fera sur questionnaire, la saisie à l’aide de logiciel informatique comme le logiciel Statistica ou SPSS ou autre. Il permettra de faire aussi l’analyse pour la réflexion des modalités de diffusion de l’information.
Paper presenter: Havva Çaha (Assistant Professor Dr., Fatih University), “Turkish Womens Attitudes and Behaviors Toward Energy Saving”
This work is trying to determine the behaviours and attitudes of house-wives related with energy saving who have different social-economic status in various cities throughout Istanbul. The energy efficiency and saving policies lead to the energy security, the reduction of the environmental impact and a decrease in energy intensity. It is expected that the efficiency and saving policies will lead fundamental changes in the attitudes of the end consumers towards energy. Energy saving doesn’t mean to consume less energy in a low quality life. But it means to form a high quality and comfortable life by consuming less energy. To determine the Turkish women attitudes towards the energy, focal group work, which is a qualitative way of searching, is applied in this work. While focal group works are being formed, the job of household foreman is considered in order to determine the social-economic status (SES). In this work the prices of electricity, natural gas, coal, tube and monthly and annual amounts of energy expense were asked to the participants in the group work. Besides this, the percent of the amount of monthly and annual income was asked in order to identify the rate of energy which takes up the budget of household. In this work, particularly poor women consider energy as a very significant problem. They have serious problems about providing energy and payment of the bills. In this part of work, firstly the age of white goods and the things which participants pay attention while they are purchasing white goods are asked. According to research, the most important thing while buying white goods is price. Poor people don’t care about how much electricity their goods consume or whether they are energy efficient or not. When the participants are asked how they have the information about the saving energy, they answer that they hear about it from TV or visual and oral media. Housewives interiorise the things they hear and they try to practice them. Because of this reason, TV advertisements should raise the public awareness about that.