Category: Pearl Fishing in Qatar

The National Museum of Qatar presents a national narrative of the history and culture of the people and the country. In the exhibit named “Life on the Coast” the museum shows the historical narrative of the importance of pearl fishing to the nation not just as an economic resource but also an essential part of the culture as presented in previous blog posts. The museum aims to show the audience the significance of pearling by showing the dangers associated with pearling in open seas for long periods of time and how the pearl divers would operate on sea which would evoke an emotional reaction from the visitors towards the struggles of the divers. The museum shows the audience to perceive the history of pearl fishing to be seen as an integral part of the lives of the people as they lived in tandem with the sea and depended on it for their civilization. In this final blog post, I will focus my attention on how the museum portrays the integration of the sea in the culture of the Qataris and analyse how the museum put forward a narrative that the dependency of the locals on the sea for providing them with resources lead them to build an appreciation for it.

Although the National Museum depicts the relationship of the people with the sea as one of awe and appreciation, it is also dependent and inherently exploitative as the humans are the ones depending on nature and not the sea depending on the Qatari locals for its flourishment. The museum tries to show the socio-economic importance of the sea but fails to show how divers had been exploiting the resources of the sea and celebrating it only when it presented them with useful resources such as oysters and fish. The idea of building close relations with nature is seen in the article by Ramachandra Guha in “Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation” who argues that by making use of the natural resources around us, humans build a positive relationship with nature which leads us to be more appreciative and environmentally caring of the resource (Guha, 75). This leads to the question of whether nature can only be appreciated by people if it presents them with something to be appreciative of as it did in the case of Qatar, had they not found oysters and pearls would they still consider the ocean to be an integral part of their lives. This question can be answered by Cronon’s ideas on wilderness as he writes that humans are appreciative of nature regardless of the material and resourceful relationship as sometimes it is enough to simply be in the presence of nature to feel appreciative of it (Cronon, 2). As noted in my first blog post, the museum depicts the local people having feelings of awe and fear of the sea as it was provider for them as well as a taker of life. The museum evokes these feelings of awe through sounds of the ocean and large imagery projected onto the walls which shows the underwater and the also through the fictional movie made specifically for the museum, Nafas.

The notion of hard work and struggle is prevalent throughout the museum exhibit as it tries to evoke sympathy for pearl divers through the recorded interviews, movies and displays of historical diving and pearling equipment. The museum aims at showing the audience the difficulties associated with pearl diving and to build a pride amongst the locals in celebrating their heritage and be thankful to the ocean for providing them with resources that allowed them to prosper economically thus linking nature and humans intimately. It is shown as reminder to be appreciative and respect the ocean as the modern day society does not see the value of the sea as an integral part of their lives or incorporate the sea into their culture since the urbanization and new found petroculture changed their perspective to opt for more environmentally destructive yet economically beneficial resources. This can also be seen as an effort to refocus our attention towards the sea not for an economic gain but to conserve and protect the sea as it was a part of the history of the nation which is depicted by the museum. Cronon’s argument on nature conservation here would mean treating the sea not as a mystical untouched nature that can be used for escaping the monotony of urban life but more so to treat the ocean as a part of the culture of Qatar and build a positive relationship as it once existed in the past.

Although Guha argues that the third world uses the resources provided by nature for economic gain in order to ensure their survival, it can be applied to the museum’s narrative on building a relationship to the sea as well. As depicted in the museum exhibit, the people would migrate closer to the sea during pearl fishing season in order to find employment and settle close before moving away to the desert after the season ended (National Museum of Qatar, 2019). The people had to migrate to the coastal areas every summer in order to survive as their economic dependency relied on the sea where people could get jobs as fisherman, pearl divers or pearl merchants which according to the exhibit would lead to a cultural celebration of the sea as a provider.

The narrative of the museum in building and shaping the history of how pearl diving is depicted as that the people have been in a harmonious relationship with the sea as it has been a source of income and a cultural reminder of what the sea meant to them. The museum aims at wanting to promote the peoples appreciation towards the sea and place the same value on it as the previous generations had. Even though the sea does not play a major role in society nowadays due to urbanization and globalization, there does not have to be a dependent relationship on the sea to see its inherent beauty and can also be appreciated regardless of what it provides us with.

Works Cited:

William Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in  Nature, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, 69-90

Guha, Ramachandra. “Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique”, Environmental Ethics, Vol. 11 (1), Spring 1989.

Life on the Coast. 28 March 2019 ­– , National Museum of Qatar, Doha.

The National Museum of Qatar’s Pearling Exhibit, though very informative of the history of pearl diving and trade, does not explicitly go into depth regarding the environmental impacts of pearl fishing. Going back to the movie by Mira Nair, Nafas, it shows how the pearl divers would collect oysters from the sea bed in vast amounts to search for pearls with limited chances of success. To the “deep ecologists,” this practice of pearl fishing would be seen as the exploitative and anthropocentric actions of humans. According to Western deep ecologists, the value of nonhuman beings should not rely upon their usefulness towards humans but rather they should hold their value just for their own sake and hence nonhuman nature must be preserved and untouched (Garrard, 23). This position is challenged by Ramachandra Guha in the article, “Radical Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique,” who puts forward the argument that viewing the wilderness or nature in the East from the perspective of American environmentalism is extremely problematic (Guha, 75). In the East, local populations have settled harmoniously with nature and utilize it for gaining resources such as food, water and to make a living and to take these resources away from the people would be detrimental to them (Guha, 75). The reliance of the Qatari population on the sea can be seen in the same light as pearl fishing was essential for them and a major source of food and income for the society as they used pearls to trade with the world (National Museum of Qatar, 2019). If pearl fishing was taken away from the people of Qatar, the people would have lost their food source and way of earning money which would have had negative impacts on the socioeconomic conditions of the country.

As mentioned in the previous posts, Nair’s short film depicts the harmonious nature of local population with the sea. The importance of the sea to the local population was not limited to its resources but it also shaped their perception of life. In the short film, the unnamed pearl diver leaves his wife behind to go on a pearl diving journey where he nearly drowns in the sea but is saved by the faith of his wife and hallucination of his wife swimming towards him (Nair, 07:32). As the pearl diver resurfaces the sea, a faint first cry of a newborn baby is heard in the background symbolizing the birth of the diver from the ocean and symbolizes a new life being given to him (Nair, 08:00). The significance of this scene is that it shows the importance that the people placed in the sea, how they feared the sea but also respected the sea as it provided the population with a source of income but at the same time could also be deadly. In the film, Nair this depiction of the sea as a giver and taker of life shows how the local population would view the sea as an integral part of their lives and culture. This proves a direct contrast to the belief of American environmentalism as it shows that the Qatari population did not exploit nature to fulfill their own needs but live harmoniously and sustainably with the sea.

Works Cited:

Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. 2nd ed. Abingdon, Oxon; Routledge, 2012.

Guha, Ramachandra. “Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique”, Environmental Ethics, Vol. 11 (1), Spring 1989.

Life on the Coast. 28 March 2019 ­– , National Museum of Qatar, Doha.

Nafas, directed by Mira Nair, Doha Film Institute, 2014.

Pearl diving had a significant economic and cultural impact on the local people of Qatar to the extent that it was responsible for shaping the way of life for many people both on the land and at sea. The National Museum of Qatar displays on multiple screens interviews of Qatari pearl divers and merchants who shared their accounts of their life at sea and the difficulties that accompanied their journeys. However, despite all their hardships, the pearl divers were still willing to return for the pearl fishing season as it was their primary way of making a living. The pearl divers and their families would live on the coast during the pearl fishing season, generally the summer seasons, and then return to the desert during the colder months (Life on the Coast, 28 March 2019). The migratory patterns of the people from the desert to the coast and back shows the dependent relationship of the people towards the sea and utilizing it as a source of economic gains which also dictated their culture and way of life. We could also see a parallel of this in today’s society as the Qatari people shifted their dependency from pearl fishing to the production of petroleum and natural gas, interestingly which is also found in the sea.

In a book by the Petrocultures Research Group, After Oil, they introduce the concept of “petroculture” which means that our lives have become so intertwined with oil and its usage that it shapes the “values, practices, habits, beliefs and feelings” of society (Petrocultures Research Group, 9). The main concept here is the reliance that humans have on material objects that serve as capital for them which then determines the customs of society. They pose an interesting theory that human societies place a significant value towards materials that would benefit them to the extent they allow it to shape their lives much like how the pearl divers and their families let the pearling season determine their location and lifestyle as well as their culture as shown in Mira Nair’s film Nafas. The Museum depicts the sea as an inseparable part of Qatari civilization and pearl divers and showed how their lives revolved around the sea itself. The National Museum shows through the interviews of former pearl diving families the importance that the Qatari pearl divers placed on the sea as the interviewees state that “their lives were all about the sea” and that “their way of life was anchored to the sea” (Life on the Coast, 2019).

The Petrocultures Research Group also pose a theory of transitioning from petroculture to other forms of energy resources due to declining fossil fuels resources and shape our societies to make that shift. Although the PRG are arguing in favor of transitioning away from petroculture and giving significant importance to materialism and economic gain, the Qatari transitioned from one form of economic benefit through pearl fishing to another which was oil production. The decline in the pearling fishing industry came about due to the introduction of cheaper and artificially curated pearls from Japan which forced the Qatari pearl divers to look for a different source of income until they eventually discovered oil (Hobbs). However, the appreciation and admiration of the sea that the locals feel has not changed as evident by memorializing the history and heritage of pearl diving in the National Museum and creating monuments such as the “Pearl Monument” on Corniche Street. This shows that despite having changed their dependency from one material object to the other, the Qatari culture still maintains its legacy of pearl diving and their love of the sea.

Works Cited:

Life on the Coast. 28 March 2019 ­– , National Museum of Qatar, Doha.

Petrocultures Research Group, After Oil, Petrocultures Research Group. Edmonton; University of Alberta, 2016.

Hobbs, Mark. “Divers are a Pearl’s Best Friend: Pearl Diving in the Gulf 1840s–1930s”, Qatar Digital Library. 18 December, 2014. https://www.qdl.qa/en/divers-are-pearl’s-best-friend-pearl-diving-gulf-1840s–1930s

The National Museum of Qatar has an entire exhibit of artefacts dedicated towards the history and significance of pearl fishing in the nation’s past. It depicts the intimate relationship that the people had with the sea and their appreciation for it. However, the most significant aspect of pearl fishing and its impact upon Qatari society is depicted through videos and short films projected onto the walls of the museum that provide a clear narrative of the life of pearl divers and their interaction with the sea. On the walls of the exhibit titled “Life on the Coast,” the museum has a projection of a short film directed by Mira Nair created for the museum in 2014 titled Nafas (Breathe), which focuses on the lives of pearl divers and the dangers associated with having to dive into open waters in order to look for mollusks containing pearls. The short films shows the audience the turbulent yet dependent relation that the pearl divers had with the sea where they would suffer through the dangers of the sea such as predators and nearly drowning yet still venture out into the hostile seas to find mollusks with pearls in order to provide for their families back on land.

The short film is reflective of the relationship that the Qatari pearl divers had with the sea which was one of dependency and that of awe as they would spend months in the open and hostile seas in order to make a living. However, the sea wasn’t feared by the divers and the local people. Rather it was valued for its contribution to the culture and economy of the local population and was celebrated for providing the locals with beautiful pearls which were used to make ornaments. William Cronon, in the essay “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” theorizes the concept of integrating the wild into human culture in order to build respect and appreciation to it. He is critical of the American and mainstream conceptualization of wilderness which is to draw a line between nature and civilization for its preservation and to only see value in the so-called untouched lands as natural (Cronon, 1). Cronon argues that in order to appreciate wilderness we have to look at it from the perspective of it being a part of us rather than some mystical otherworld that we can escape to (Cronon, 21).

We see the concept of the integration of the nonhuman nature into the Qatari culture through their interaction and dependency on the sea. The pearl diving culture provides a different form of cultural integration of nature than the one that Cronon envisions in his essay which were the forests and mountains. The Qatari pearl divers showed their appreciation of the sea by allowing it to become a part of their lives and making use of the sea’s natural resources such as fish and mollusks rather than treating it as something separate to themselves. Much like how Cronon proposes humans to interact with nature in a way that acknowledges its presence in our lives, the Qatari coastal communities had created a culture around the sea and how the sea benefits them. An example of this in the short film is when it shows children training to hold their breaths for long periods of time in order to adapt themselves to diving underwater and this training is crucial for the protagonist and other pearl divers for their survival (Nair, 04:22). This scene showed how working with the sea had become such an integral part of the lives of Qatari locals that they started to prepare since their youth and understand the challenges they would face in the wild and untamable sea. Celebrating the sea in the Qatari community involved integrating it into their own lives and creating cultural practices which would allow the people to interact with the sea in a beneficial manner to society while caring for it as well.

Works Cited

William Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in  Nature, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, 69-90

Nafas, directed by Mira Nair, Doha Film Institute, 2014.

Qatar’s history of pearl fishing is quite rich and significant as it used to be one of the most important export goods of the region and was central to the local economy and culture. The pearl fishing industry of Qatar helped the region establish trades with far off regions such as Europe, East Asia, Africa, etc, through the use of the iconic dhow boats of Qatar. The pearl fishing industry also was responsible for the relocation of locals from the deserts to the coastal areas as the pearl fishing and trading industry which is still evident till present day as the majority of the populated cities of Qatar lie on the eastern coast. However, Qatar’s pearling export declined with the rise of ‘cultured pearls’ from Japan which were cheaper and more sought after rather than natural pearls. Despite the decline in pearl fishing in the region it still plays an important role in the culture of the people as it is a significant part of the history of the region. Hence, in my blog I will be discussing the socioeconomic importance of pearl fishing and how it helped shape Doha as a major port city and capital. Some interesting topics to explore are how the pearl fishing industry impacted the local demographics and social hierarchies. I would also like to explore how the relationship between the people and the sea as a whole played a main role in the development of the local culture and building an appreciation for the Arabian sea. The National Museum of Qatar has dedicated an entire exhibition showcasing the history of pearl fishing and its impacts on the lives of the people living at the coasts. It shows the vibrant and lively nature of the cities as a result of the region being a major exporter of valuable pearls which led to a lot of wealth and prosperity in the region. I will explore the historical significance of pearl fishing by using the museum as a primary source of information for my blog posts. I will also be looking at secondary sources, for example Fletcher and Carter’s essay “Mapping the Growth of an Arabian Gulf Town: The Case of Doha, Qatar” where they explore how the city of Doha was planned as a result of its economic and cultural development. Through exploring these sources I intend to argue the relationship between the environment and the people of Qatar and how it has helped shape an entire region’s culture and had an impact on the environment itself.