- 16 Oct 2014
THE REPRESENTATIONS OF CHANGE IN QATARI SOCIETY: FROM ONE EMIR TO ANOTHER, 1972-2013
ABSTRACT
Since Qatar’s independence in 1971 and until June 2013, the state has been ruled by two Emirs, who have both brought significant transformations to their society. The aim of this presentation is to understand how these transformations have been experienced, perceived and memorialised by Qataris. The representations that emerged will be analyzed on the basis of materials collected from continuous anthropological investigations, which put the anthropologist in the position of an actor-witness. The main changes that were required, in the name of progress on the one hand, and discourses on the need to maintain tribal tradition on the other hand, are non-variables. The process highlights the fact that, from one Emir to his successor – father to son, the differing assessments made by the population could be largely explained by the pace of reform in these two spheres.
About the Speakers
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
French National Museum of Natural History
Anie Montigny has been Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris since 1996. She was a Research Project Manager at the Institut du Monde Arabe from 1985 to 1991. She has also worked with research programmes at the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique and the Muséum, including ‘Techniques & Culture’, ‘Environmental anthropology and Ethnobiology’, and Socio- cultural changes and State actions in the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq’. She has carried out some 60 months of field work in Qatar, and has published several articles on the country: ‘Les representations du changement dans la société qatarie, d’un émir à l’autre (1972-2013)’ [The representations of change in Qatari society, from one Emir to the next (1972-2013)] in Arabian Humanities (2014), ‘Cette relation imaginaire qui fait le style. Essai sur l’art islamique et le style ethnique’ [This imaginary relationship that makes style. Essay on Islamic art and ethnic style] in Anthropology of the Middle East (2013), ‘The transmission of oral tradition by the Al Na’îm of Qatar’ in Journal of Social Affairs (2006) and ‘Histoire et Changements sociaux au Qatar’ [History and Social Changes in Qatar] in P. Bonnenfant (ed) La Péninsule Arabique d’Aujourd’hui [The Arabian Peninsula Today] (1982). Her expert opinion was requested by the Qatari Ministry of Defence in 1991-1992 regarding the Bahrain-Qatar conflict.
