NOMADERS FREMTIDSUDSIGTER: Beduiner i oliestaterne Qatar og Bahrain og pashtuner i Afghanistan

Abstract

Klaus Ferdinand: Nomads’ Perspectives

on the Future. Beduins in the Oil States

Qatar and Bahrain and Pashtuns in

Afghanistan

The study of pastoral nomads and especially

the processes of change they are (and have

been) undergoing has, for several decades.

been an important field of study in

anthropology. In the Middle East nomadism

does not only comprise pastoral nomads but

a wide variety of other developments in

interplay with the surrounding social

environment. This “multi-resource nomadism”

(Salzman 1969) or “extended

nomadism” is culturally stamped by its local

or regional cultural and social surroundings.

In Afghanistan these developments have

resulted in settling down. When does it

become appropriate to stop talking of

nomadism and nomads altogether? This is

discussed on the background of material

from the Arab Gulf States Qatar and Bahrain

and from Afghanistan. Furthermore, the very

different status of the nomads in Arabia and

in Afghanistan (and Iran) is discussed. In

Arabia traditional Beduin life is fast disappearing,

but it is kept “alive” in a new role

as part of the affluent oil states’ national

identity and exhibited in their museums and

centres of national heritage. In Afghanistan

the situation is quite the reverse: here the

nomads have generally been considered

“wild” and represented an outdated form of

life. In spite of this faet, however, they continue

to exist, and to all appearances are also

expanding in numbers throughout the 1980s

and 1990s with the turbulent and chaotic war

situation. Nevertheless, as nomadism is on

its way out and becoming a matter of history,

it is argued that our studies also have to

become historical, and once again also have

to comprise the study of material culture.

This is so, because our rich museum

collections in the future will serve as

primary data collections. This necessitates

having them well doeumented and this is not

usually the case!