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Soqotra, the largest island of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, is one of the most uniquely diverse places in the world. A UNESCO natural World Heritage Site, the island is home not only to birds, reptiles, and plants found nowhere else on earth, but also to a rich cultural history and the endangered Soqotri language. Within the span of a decade, this Indian Ocean archipelago went from being among the most marginalized regions of Yemen to promoted for its outstanding global value. Islands of Heritage shares Soqotrans' stories to offer the first exploration of environmental conservation, heritage…mehr
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Soqotra, the largest island of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, is one of the most uniquely diverse places in the world. A UNESCO natural World Heritage Site, the island is home not only to birds, reptiles, and plants found nowhere else on earth, but also to a rich cultural history and the endangered Soqotri language. Within the span of a decade, this Indian Ocean archipelago went from being among the most marginalized regions of Yemen to promoted for its outstanding global value. Islands of Heritage shares Soqotrans' stories to offer the first exploration of environmental conservation, heritage production, and development in an Arab state.
Examining the multiple notions of heritage in play for twenty-first-century Soqotra, Nathalie Peutz narrates how everyday Soqotrans came to assemble, defend, and mobilize their cultural and linguistic heritage. These efforts, which diverged from outsiders' focus on the island's natural heritage, ultimately added to Soqotrans' calls for political and cultural change during the Yemeni Revolution. Islands of Heritage shows that far from being merely a conservative endeavor, the protection of heritage can have profoundly transformative, even revolutionary effects. Grassroots claims to heritage can be a potent form of political engagement with the most imminent concerns of the present: human rights, globalization, democracy, and sustainability.
Examining the multiple notions of heritage in play for twenty-first-century Soqotra, Nathalie Peutz narrates how everyday Soqotrans came to assemble, defend, and mobilize their cultural and linguistic heritage. These efforts, which diverged from outsiders' focus on the island's natural heritage, ultimately added to Soqotrans' calls for political and cultural change during the Yemeni Revolution. Islands of Heritage shows that far from being merely a conservative endeavor, the protection of heritage can have profoundly transformative, even revolutionary effects. Grassroots claims to heritage can be a potent form of political engagement with the most imminent concerns of the present: human rights, globalization, democracy, and sustainability.
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Produktdetails
- Produktdetails
- Verlag: Stanford University Press
- Seitenzahl: 368
- Erscheinungstermin: 13. November 2018
- Englisch
- ISBN-13: 9781503607156
- Artikelnr.: 54116411
- Verlag: Stanford University Press
- Seitenzahl: 368
- Erscheinungstermin: 13. November 2018
- Englisch
- ISBN-13: 9781503607156
- Artikelnr.: 54116411
Nathalie Peutz is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at New York University Abu Dhabi.
Contents and Abstracts
Introduction
chapter abstract
Beginning with an anecdote of a Soqotran teacher convening a political
protest (during the Yemeni Revolution) and a poetry contest on the same
day, the Introduction asks how heritage (a nominally conservative endeavor)
and revolution (a nominally transformative endeavor) could be connected. It
lays out the importance of studying heritage. It reviews the history and
politicization of heritage in the Arab world. And it provides a geographic
and historical overview of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, a UNESCO-inscribed
natural World Heritage Site with a long genealogy of being deemed
exceptional and "protected." It then describes the author's fieldwork and
methodology. It concludes by arguing that, despite important arguments for
working to transcend the nature-culture divide (in heritage making, as in
other things), certain "islands" (boundaries) may be productive.
1Hospitality in Unsettling Times
chapter abstract
This chapter introduces readers to a transhumant pastoralist community
living in a newly established protected area (Homhil). It shows how the
unprecedented opening of Soqotra gave rise to a crisis of hospitality, a
long-held cultural value. Soqotrans' discourse of hospitality (karam) in
crisis reveals significant mutations in the island's political economy and
social structures, precipitated by its 1990 absorption into the unified
Yemeni state and its transformation from a militarized enclave to a
national protected area. Karam (and the ostensible lack of it) has become
the idiom through which the islanders have been processing these changes.
In light of current debates in the West about the dangers of "hosting"
(im)migrants, this chapter points out that, in Soqotra, the crisis was
exacerbated not nearly as much by Soqotrans' fears of being too hospitable
as by their concern that they were no longer being hospitable enough.
2Hungering for the State
chapter abstract
Due to the archipelago's annual isolation during the southwest monsoon, in
addition to its arid climate, Soqotrans are no strangers to food insecurity
or famine. Accordingly, their interactions with each entering state-the
Sultanate, the British Protectorate, South Yemen, and the Saleh regime-have
been mediated by food. Yet, as this historical chapter demonstrates, it was
not only the state's administration of food that governed Soqotrans'
interactions with each regime. Soqotrans have a long history of feeding-and
simultaneously "hungering" for-the state in return. Drawing on oral
histories, archives, and interviews, this chapter surveys Soqotra's
political history as one governed through food, famine, and fear. It argues
that Soqotrans may have experienced physical hunger in the past, but in the
2000s they hungered for a state that would provide real and lasting
sustenance.
3When the Environment Arrived
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses the implementation of four major integrated
conservation and development projects (ICDPs) between 1996 and 2013, which
resulted in the archipelago's inscription as a UNESCO natural World
Heritage Site. It begins by reviewing how these projects were preceded by
the decades-long arrivals of foreign researchers and the continued
dissemination of their ideas about Soqotra's environmental exceptionality.
It then discusses the establishment of environmental legislation in unified
Yemen (post-1990) and details the various ICDP projects that were
implemented on Soqotra during this period. It ends by describing two
"environmental awareness" meetings in the protected area (Homhil). Drawing
on project documents and literature, observation of rural outreach and
environmental awareness programs, and daily participation within a the
protected-area community, this chapter reveals why "the Environment," as
project and concept, failed to mobilize these pastoral communities so
dependent on their natural surroundings.
4Arrested Development
chapter abstract
This chapter presents an ethnographic narrative of the material, social,
and political effects of several conservation-and-development initiatives
in a pilot protected area inhabited by pastoralists (Bedouin). It focuses
on the implementation of three development projects by the Socotra
Conservation and Development Programme: a new tourist campground, a
community home garden, and piped water. Although these projects were meant
to improve the pastoralists' material well-being, they wound up pitting
leaders, tribes, villages, and men and women within the community against
one another. Through a close "mapping" of these tensions, this chapter
underscores why, in these pastoralists' view, "the Environment" had little
traction-despite its strong influence in the island. As a result, some
Soqotrans sought to preserve their livelihoods by shifting their focus to
cultural heritage instead.
5Reorienting Heritage
chapter abstract
This chapter focuses on the influence of the Soqotran diaspora in island
politics in the decade preceding the 2011 revolution. Beginning with an
overview of the three major phases of twentieth-century emigration from
Soqotra to the Arab Gulf, it illustrates how pervasive these Soqotra-Gulf
connections were and are. It explores the ways in which emigrants
politicized Soqotran identity, culture, heritage, and history through their
histories, their poetry, and the island's first museum. And it examines the
ways in which the diaspora sought to denature and reorient Soqotran
heritage by shifting the focus from nature to culture, from Soqotran
autochthony to Arab descent, from Indian Ocean hybridity to genealogical
purity, and from the Yemeni nation to the transnational Gulf. These
heterogeneous, kaleidoscopic, and entangled processes of heritage making
reveal a deep-seated anguish over past political events and an ongoing
struggle to reorient Soqotra's future.
6Heritage in the Time of Revolution
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses how the islanders mobilized cultural heritage in the
years bracketing the Yemeni Revolution, when several positioned themselves
as "para-experts" alongside foreigners working for the environmental
projects. It explores three individuals' growing interest in heritage as a
political and profitable resource. It examines debates over the contours of
this heritage. And it traces the development of an islandwide poetry
competition, its overt politicization in the wake of the Arab uprisings,
and the eventual recognition of the Soqotri language in the draft
constitution for the new Yemen. It argues that Soqotrans' preoccupation
with their cultural heritage during this period bears a strong resemblance
to nineteenth-century European nationalists' "cultivation of culture."
Thus, it was not a provincial, insular, or even conservative concern.
Rather, it reflects a distinctly twenty-first-century realization that
vernacular languages and endemic species are on the verge of extinction.
Conclusion
chapter abstract
The Conclusion provides an overview of the current humanitarian crisis in
Yemen and Soqotra's renewed isolation since Yemen's civil war began in
2015. It underscores what a small group of Soqotran laymen (para-experts)
were able to achieve through their mobilization of cultural heritage during
a time of crisis, before the war. It then briefly discusses the two most
recent, and potentially competing, visions for the archipelago: UAE-funded
development and a new, Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded
conservation-and-development project. It offers suggestions for how ethnic
and linguistic minorities like Soqotrans can be supported in their cultural
work. And it concludes with some lessons learned from the author's
interlocutors.
Introduction
chapter abstract
Beginning with an anecdote of a Soqotran teacher convening a political
protest (during the Yemeni Revolution) and a poetry contest on the same
day, the Introduction asks how heritage (a nominally conservative endeavor)
and revolution (a nominally transformative endeavor) could be connected. It
lays out the importance of studying heritage. It reviews the history and
politicization of heritage in the Arab world. And it provides a geographic
and historical overview of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, a UNESCO-inscribed
natural World Heritage Site with a long genealogy of being deemed
exceptional and "protected." It then describes the author's fieldwork and
methodology. It concludes by arguing that, despite important arguments for
working to transcend the nature-culture divide (in heritage making, as in
other things), certain "islands" (boundaries) may be productive.
1Hospitality in Unsettling Times
chapter abstract
This chapter introduces readers to a transhumant pastoralist community
living in a newly established protected area (Homhil). It shows how the
unprecedented opening of Soqotra gave rise to a crisis of hospitality, a
long-held cultural value. Soqotrans' discourse of hospitality (karam) in
crisis reveals significant mutations in the island's political economy and
social structures, precipitated by its 1990 absorption into the unified
Yemeni state and its transformation from a militarized enclave to a
national protected area. Karam (and the ostensible lack of it) has become
the idiom through which the islanders have been processing these changes.
In light of current debates in the West about the dangers of "hosting"
(im)migrants, this chapter points out that, in Soqotra, the crisis was
exacerbated not nearly as much by Soqotrans' fears of being too hospitable
as by their concern that they were no longer being hospitable enough.
2Hungering for the State
chapter abstract
Due to the archipelago's annual isolation during the southwest monsoon, in
addition to its arid climate, Soqotrans are no strangers to food insecurity
or famine. Accordingly, their interactions with each entering state-the
Sultanate, the British Protectorate, South Yemen, and the Saleh regime-have
been mediated by food. Yet, as this historical chapter demonstrates, it was
not only the state's administration of food that governed Soqotrans'
interactions with each regime. Soqotrans have a long history of feeding-and
simultaneously "hungering" for-the state in return. Drawing on oral
histories, archives, and interviews, this chapter surveys Soqotra's
political history as one governed through food, famine, and fear. It argues
that Soqotrans may have experienced physical hunger in the past, but in the
2000s they hungered for a state that would provide real and lasting
sustenance.
3When the Environment Arrived
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses the implementation of four major integrated
conservation and development projects (ICDPs) between 1996 and 2013, which
resulted in the archipelago's inscription as a UNESCO natural World
Heritage Site. It begins by reviewing how these projects were preceded by
the decades-long arrivals of foreign researchers and the continued
dissemination of their ideas about Soqotra's environmental exceptionality.
It then discusses the establishment of environmental legislation in unified
Yemen (post-1990) and details the various ICDP projects that were
implemented on Soqotra during this period. It ends by describing two
"environmental awareness" meetings in the protected area (Homhil). Drawing
on project documents and literature, observation of rural outreach and
environmental awareness programs, and daily participation within a the
protected-area community, this chapter reveals why "the Environment," as
project and concept, failed to mobilize these pastoral communities so
dependent on their natural surroundings.
4Arrested Development
chapter abstract
This chapter presents an ethnographic narrative of the material, social,
and political effects of several conservation-and-development initiatives
in a pilot protected area inhabited by pastoralists (Bedouin). It focuses
on the implementation of three development projects by the Socotra
Conservation and Development Programme: a new tourist campground, a
community home garden, and piped water. Although these projects were meant
to improve the pastoralists' material well-being, they wound up pitting
leaders, tribes, villages, and men and women within the community against
one another. Through a close "mapping" of these tensions, this chapter
underscores why, in these pastoralists' view, "the Environment" had little
traction-despite its strong influence in the island. As a result, some
Soqotrans sought to preserve their livelihoods by shifting their focus to
cultural heritage instead.
5Reorienting Heritage
chapter abstract
This chapter focuses on the influence of the Soqotran diaspora in island
politics in the decade preceding the 2011 revolution. Beginning with an
overview of the three major phases of twentieth-century emigration from
Soqotra to the Arab Gulf, it illustrates how pervasive these Soqotra-Gulf
connections were and are. It explores the ways in which emigrants
politicized Soqotran identity, culture, heritage, and history through their
histories, their poetry, and the island's first museum. And it examines the
ways in which the diaspora sought to denature and reorient Soqotran
heritage by shifting the focus from nature to culture, from Soqotran
autochthony to Arab descent, from Indian Ocean hybridity to genealogical
purity, and from the Yemeni nation to the transnational Gulf. These
heterogeneous, kaleidoscopic, and entangled processes of heritage making
reveal a deep-seated anguish over past political events and an ongoing
struggle to reorient Soqotra's future.
6Heritage in the Time of Revolution
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses how the islanders mobilized cultural heritage in the
years bracketing the Yemeni Revolution, when several positioned themselves
as "para-experts" alongside foreigners working for the environmental
projects. It explores three individuals' growing interest in heritage as a
political and profitable resource. It examines debates over the contours of
this heritage. And it traces the development of an islandwide poetry
competition, its overt politicization in the wake of the Arab uprisings,
and the eventual recognition of the Soqotri language in the draft
constitution for the new Yemen. It argues that Soqotrans' preoccupation
with their cultural heritage during this period bears a strong resemblance
to nineteenth-century European nationalists' "cultivation of culture."
Thus, it was not a provincial, insular, or even conservative concern.
Rather, it reflects a distinctly twenty-first-century realization that
vernacular languages and endemic species are on the verge of extinction.
Conclusion
chapter abstract
The Conclusion provides an overview of the current humanitarian crisis in
Yemen and Soqotra's renewed isolation since Yemen's civil war began in
2015. It underscores what a small group of Soqotran laymen (para-experts)
were able to achieve through their mobilization of cultural heritage during
a time of crisis, before the war. It then briefly discusses the two most
recent, and potentially competing, visions for the archipelago: UAE-funded
development and a new, Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded
conservation-and-development project. It offers suggestions for how ethnic
and linguistic minorities like Soqotrans can be supported in their cultural
work. And it concludes with some lessons learned from the author's
interlocutors.
Contents and Abstracts
Introduction
chapter abstract
Beginning with an anecdote of a Soqotran teacher convening a political
protest (during the Yemeni Revolution) and a poetry contest on the same
day, the Introduction asks how heritage (a nominally conservative endeavor)
and revolution (a nominally transformative endeavor) could be connected. It
lays out the importance of studying heritage. It reviews the history and
politicization of heritage in the Arab world. And it provides a geographic
and historical overview of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, a UNESCO-inscribed
natural World Heritage Site with a long genealogy of being deemed
exceptional and "protected." It then describes the author's fieldwork and
methodology. It concludes by arguing that, despite important arguments for
working to transcend the nature-culture divide (in heritage making, as in
other things), certain "islands" (boundaries) may be productive.
1Hospitality in Unsettling Times
chapter abstract
This chapter introduces readers to a transhumant pastoralist community
living in a newly established protected area (Homhil). It shows how the
unprecedented opening of Soqotra gave rise to a crisis of hospitality, a
long-held cultural value. Soqotrans' discourse of hospitality (karam) in
crisis reveals significant mutations in the island's political economy and
social structures, precipitated by its 1990 absorption into the unified
Yemeni state and its transformation from a militarized enclave to a
national protected area. Karam (and the ostensible lack of it) has become
the idiom through which the islanders have been processing these changes.
In light of current debates in the West about the dangers of "hosting"
(im)migrants, this chapter points out that, in Soqotra, the crisis was
exacerbated not nearly as much by Soqotrans' fears of being too hospitable
as by their concern that they were no longer being hospitable enough.
2Hungering for the State
chapter abstract
Due to the archipelago's annual isolation during the southwest monsoon, in
addition to its arid climate, Soqotrans are no strangers to food insecurity
or famine. Accordingly, their interactions with each entering state-the
Sultanate, the British Protectorate, South Yemen, and the Saleh regime-have
been mediated by food. Yet, as this historical chapter demonstrates, it was
not only the state's administration of food that governed Soqotrans'
interactions with each regime. Soqotrans have a long history of feeding-and
simultaneously "hungering" for-the state in return. Drawing on oral
histories, archives, and interviews, this chapter surveys Soqotra's
political history as one governed through food, famine, and fear. It argues
that Soqotrans may have experienced physical hunger in the past, but in the
2000s they hungered for a state that would provide real and lasting
sustenance.
3When the Environment Arrived
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses the implementation of four major integrated
conservation and development projects (ICDPs) between 1996 and 2013, which
resulted in the archipelago's inscription as a UNESCO natural World
Heritage Site. It begins by reviewing how these projects were preceded by
the decades-long arrivals of foreign researchers and the continued
dissemination of their ideas about Soqotra's environmental exceptionality.
It then discusses the establishment of environmental legislation in unified
Yemen (post-1990) and details the various ICDP projects that were
implemented on Soqotra during this period. It ends by describing two
"environmental awareness" meetings in the protected area (Homhil). Drawing
on project documents and literature, observation of rural outreach and
environmental awareness programs, and daily participation within a the
protected-area community, this chapter reveals why "the Environment," as
project and concept, failed to mobilize these pastoral communities so
dependent on their natural surroundings.
4Arrested Development
chapter abstract
This chapter presents an ethnographic narrative of the material, social,
and political effects of several conservation-and-development initiatives
in a pilot protected area inhabited by pastoralists (Bedouin). It focuses
on the implementation of three development projects by the Socotra
Conservation and Development Programme: a new tourist campground, a
community home garden, and piped water. Although these projects were meant
to improve the pastoralists' material well-being, they wound up pitting
leaders, tribes, villages, and men and women within the community against
one another. Through a close "mapping" of these tensions, this chapter
underscores why, in these pastoralists' view, "the Environment" had little
traction-despite its strong influence in the island. As a result, some
Soqotrans sought to preserve their livelihoods by shifting their focus to
cultural heritage instead.
5Reorienting Heritage
chapter abstract
This chapter focuses on the influence of the Soqotran diaspora in island
politics in the decade preceding the 2011 revolution. Beginning with an
overview of the three major phases of twentieth-century emigration from
Soqotra to the Arab Gulf, it illustrates how pervasive these Soqotra-Gulf
connections were and are. It explores the ways in which emigrants
politicized Soqotran identity, culture, heritage, and history through their
histories, their poetry, and the island's first museum. And it examines the
ways in which the diaspora sought to denature and reorient Soqotran
heritage by shifting the focus from nature to culture, from Soqotran
autochthony to Arab descent, from Indian Ocean hybridity to genealogical
purity, and from the Yemeni nation to the transnational Gulf. These
heterogeneous, kaleidoscopic, and entangled processes of heritage making
reveal a deep-seated anguish over past political events and an ongoing
struggle to reorient Soqotra's future.
6Heritage in the Time of Revolution
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses how the islanders mobilized cultural heritage in the
years bracketing the Yemeni Revolution, when several positioned themselves
as "para-experts" alongside foreigners working for the environmental
projects. It explores three individuals' growing interest in heritage as a
political and profitable resource. It examines debates over the contours of
this heritage. And it traces the development of an islandwide poetry
competition, its overt politicization in the wake of the Arab uprisings,
and the eventual recognition of the Soqotri language in the draft
constitution for the new Yemen. It argues that Soqotrans' preoccupation
with their cultural heritage during this period bears a strong resemblance
to nineteenth-century European nationalists' "cultivation of culture."
Thus, it was not a provincial, insular, or even conservative concern.
Rather, it reflects a distinctly twenty-first-century realization that
vernacular languages and endemic species are on the verge of extinction.
Conclusion
chapter abstract
The Conclusion provides an overview of the current humanitarian crisis in
Yemen and Soqotra's renewed isolation since Yemen's civil war began in
2015. It underscores what a small group of Soqotran laymen (para-experts)
were able to achieve through their mobilization of cultural heritage during
a time of crisis, before the war. It then briefly discusses the two most
recent, and potentially competing, visions for the archipelago: UAE-funded
development and a new, Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded
conservation-and-development project. It offers suggestions for how ethnic
and linguistic minorities like Soqotrans can be supported in their cultural
work. And it concludes with some lessons learned from the author's
interlocutors.
Introduction
chapter abstract
Beginning with an anecdote of a Soqotran teacher convening a political
protest (during the Yemeni Revolution) and a poetry contest on the same
day, the Introduction asks how heritage (a nominally conservative endeavor)
and revolution (a nominally transformative endeavor) could be connected. It
lays out the importance of studying heritage. It reviews the history and
politicization of heritage in the Arab world. And it provides a geographic
and historical overview of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, a UNESCO-inscribed
natural World Heritage Site with a long genealogy of being deemed
exceptional and "protected." It then describes the author's fieldwork and
methodology. It concludes by arguing that, despite important arguments for
working to transcend the nature-culture divide (in heritage making, as in
other things), certain "islands" (boundaries) may be productive.
1Hospitality in Unsettling Times
chapter abstract
This chapter introduces readers to a transhumant pastoralist community
living in a newly established protected area (Homhil). It shows how the
unprecedented opening of Soqotra gave rise to a crisis of hospitality, a
long-held cultural value. Soqotrans' discourse of hospitality (karam) in
crisis reveals significant mutations in the island's political economy and
social structures, precipitated by its 1990 absorption into the unified
Yemeni state and its transformation from a militarized enclave to a
national protected area. Karam (and the ostensible lack of it) has become
the idiom through which the islanders have been processing these changes.
In light of current debates in the West about the dangers of "hosting"
(im)migrants, this chapter points out that, in Soqotra, the crisis was
exacerbated not nearly as much by Soqotrans' fears of being too hospitable
as by their concern that they were no longer being hospitable enough.
2Hungering for the State
chapter abstract
Due to the archipelago's annual isolation during the southwest monsoon, in
addition to its arid climate, Soqotrans are no strangers to food insecurity
or famine. Accordingly, their interactions with each entering state-the
Sultanate, the British Protectorate, South Yemen, and the Saleh regime-have
been mediated by food. Yet, as this historical chapter demonstrates, it was
not only the state's administration of food that governed Soqotrans'
interactions with each regime. Soqotrans have a long history of feeding-and
simultaneously "hungering" for-the state in return. Drawing on oral
histories, archives, and interviews, this chapter surveys Soqotra's
political history as one governed through food, famine, and fear. It argues
that Soqotrans may have experienced physical hunger in the past, but in the
2000s they hungered for a state that would provide real and lasting
sustenance.
3When the Environment Arrived
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses the implementation of four major integrated
conservation and development projects (ICDPs) between 1996 and 2013, which
resulted in the archipelago's inscription as a UNESCO natural World
Heritage Site. It begins by reviewing how these projects were preceded by
the decades-long arrivals of foreign researchers and the continued
dissemination of their ideas about Soqotra's environmental exceptionality.
It then discusses the establishment of environmental legislation in unified
Yemen (post-1990) and details the various ICDP projects that were
implemented on Soqotra during this period. It ends by describing two
"environmental awareness" meetings in the protected area (Homhil). Drawing
on project documents and literature, observation of rural outreach and
environmental awareness programs, and daily participation within a the
protected-area community, this chapter reveals why "the Environment," as
project and concept, failed to mobilize these pastoral communities so
dependent on their natural surroundings.
4Arrested Development
chapter abstract
This chapter presents an ethnographic narrative of the material, social,
and political effects of several conservation-and-development initiatives
in a pilot protected area inhabited by pastoralists (Bedouin). It focuses
on the implementation of three development projects by the Socotra
Conservation and Development Programme: a new tourist campground, a
community home garden, and piped water. Although these projects were meant
to improve the pastoralists' material well-being, they wound up pitting
leaders, tribes, villages, and men and women within the community against
one another. Through a close "mapping" of these tensions, this chapter
underscores why, in these pastoralists' view, "the Environment" had little
traction-despite its strong influence in the island. As a result, some
Soqotrans sought to preserve their livelihoods by shifting their focus to
cultural heritage instead.
5Reorienting Heritage
chapter abstract
This chapter focuses on the influence of the Soqotran diaspora in island
politics in the decade preceding the 2011 revolution. Beginning with an
overview of the three major phases of twentieth-century emigration from
Soqotra to the Arab Gulf, it illustrates how pervasive these Soqotra-Gulf
connections were and are. It explores the ways in which emigrants
politicized Soqotran identity, culture, heritage, and history through their
histories, their poetry, and the island's first museum. And it examines the
ways in which the diaspora sought to denature and reorient Soqotran
heritage by shifting the focus from nature to culture, from Soqotran
autochthony to Arab descent, from Indian Ocean hybridity to genealogical
purity, and from the Yemeni nation to the transnational Gulf. These
heterogeneous, kaleidoscopic, and entangled processes of heritage making
reveal a deep-seated anguish over past political events and an ongoing
struggle to reorient Soqotra's future.
6Heritage in the Time of Revolution
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses how the islanders mobilized cultural heritage in the
years bracketing the Yemeni Revolution, when several positioned themselves
as "para-experts" alongside foreigners working for the environmental
projects. It explores three individuals' growing interest in heritage as a
political and profitable resource. It examines debates over the contours of
this heritage. And it traces the development of an islandwide poetry
competition, its overt politicization in the wake of the Arab uprisings,
and the eventual recognition of the Soqotri language in the draft
constitution for the new Yemen. It argues that Soqotrans' preoccupation
with their cultural heritage during this period bears a strong resemblance
to nineteenth-century European nationalists' "cultivation of culture."
Thus, it was not a provincial, insular, or even conservative concern.
Rather, it reflects a distinctly twenty-first-century realization that
vernacular languages and endemic species are on the verge of extinction.
Conclusion
chapter abstract
The Conclusion provides an overview of the current humanitarian crisis in
Yemen and Soqotra's renewed isolation since Yemen's civil war began in
2015. It underscores what a small group of Soqotran laymen (para-experts)
were able to achieve through their mobilization of cultural heritage during
a time of crisis, before the war. It then briefly discusses the two most
recent, and potentially competing, visions for the archipelago: UAE-funded
development and a new, Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded
conservation-and-development project. It offers suggestions for how ethnic
and linguistic minorities like Soqotrans can be supported in their cultural
work. And it concludes with some lessons learned from the author's
interlocutors.