Select Language

Comparative Studies of Afro-Eurasian Material Culture from the Perspective

Research period:2016.10-2020.3

NAWATA Hiroshi

Keywords

Material culture,desert societies,moving strategies,

Objectives

In this study, we investigate the entire Afro-Eurasian arid region to verify the sustainment and transformation of lifestyle’s five oases located in the Sahara desert, by the Nile River, along the Red Sea coast, in the Arabian Peninsula, and in Iran among others with focus on material culture, thereby promoting comparative studies of moving strategies among desert societies. Material culture includes (1) things associated with camels and ships (continuity of continental areas and bodies of water), (2) things associated with food and drinks (food storage and transportability) and (3) things associated with clothing and housing (symmetry of tropical zone and temperate and frigid zones). Based on a review of material culture, we shed light on the moving strategies of desert societies from three perspectives: humankind’s evolution and adaptation, variability and openness of social organizations, and material processing technology and exchange among those who possess the technology. In parallel, by making use of academic materials that were recorded and collected about half a century ago, such as materials on field surveys on the Arabian Peninsula (1968-2008) conducted by Motoko Katakura (cultural anthropologist and geographer) and those on the Algerian Sahara desert (1968-2010) by Iwao Kobori (geographer), we also verify the relationships among living space, material culture, and moving strategies as well as their changes.

Research Results

In the first year, 2016, we discussed the continuity between terrestrial and marine areas, with a focus on boats and black coral as materials related to marine areas that adjoin deserts and water usage, within the context of material culture. In the second year, 2017, we discussed the themes of “food preservation, transportability, and moving strategies,” “the inheritance of skills, movement of craftsmen, and exchange of materials,” and “temperature differences throughout the day, shade, and the lives of women,” with a focus on materials related to drink and food and materials related to clothing and dwellings. In the third year, 2018, we held discussions based on case studies of oases in the Arabian Peninsula, with a focus on the veranda and veil, and materials related to clothing and dwellings. In the final year, 2019, we compared the material culture of the Arabian Peninsula with the Maghreb region and Iran, and based on this comparison repositioned the characteristics of material culture and oases in those regions from three perspectives—human evolution and adaption, variability and openness of social organizations, and material processing techniques and exchange between the practitioners of said techniques. This process enabled us to have more in-depth discussions on the main theme of the project, “Afro-Eurasian Material Culture from the Perspective of Moving Strategies in Desert Societies.” Based on these discussions, we organized a workshop with a larger scope titled, “Adaption to the Desert and the Transformation of Lifeworlds: Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies from a Humanities and Scientific Co-creational Perspective.”
At the same time, starting the first year all members of the research project began examining the use of field study materials of the Arabian Peninsula by Motoko Katakura, while observing items in the National Museum of Ethnology’s specimen material catalog first-hand in the backyard of the Main Exhibition Building. In the second and third years, we examined materials of the Middle East in general held by the museum, and verified the relatedness between and changes in living spaces, material culture, and moving strategies using academic materials recorded and collected about 50 years ago.
The main research results are as follows: 1) An exhibition based on the results of the project titled, Exploring 50 Years of Livelihood and Landscape Change in Wadi Fatima, Saudi Arabia: Ethnographic Collections of Motoko Katakura, a Japanese Female Cultural Anthropologist, was held at NME as a thematic exhibition (June 6 – September 10, 2019) and at the Yokohama Museum of EurAsian Cultures as a traveling exhibition (October 5 – December 22, 2019); 2) The main results of the project were published in the book Exploring 50 Years of Livelihood and Landscape Change in Wadi Fatima, Saudi Arabia: Ethnographic Collections of Motoko Katakura, a Japanese Female Cultural Anthropologist (edited by Hiroshi Nawata, published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha, June 6, 2019); and 3) An international symposium in which project members played a central role titled, The Future of Cultural Exchange Between Saudi Arabia and Japan, was held at the Yokohama Information Cultural Center (November 17, 2019).