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The Arab Gulf States Folklore Centre: A Resource for the Study of Folklore and Traditional Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Daniel Martin Varisco*
Affiliation:
Doha, Qatar

Extract

While the literature on folklore and traditional culture of the Middle East is quite extensive overall, relatively little has appeared on the Arabian Gulf. Unfortunately, this region has undergone rapid socioeconomic change stimulated by the impact of oil wealth. Much of the traditional way of life in the Gulf, as in the case of pearl diving, has disappeared except in the memories of the older generation. In late 1983 an institution was formed as an initiative of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) to document and preserve the folklore of the region. This is the Arab Gulf States Folklore Centre (Markaz al-Turāth al-Sha‘bī li-Duwal al-Khalīj al-Arabīya), located in Doha, Qatar. The center is housed in a complex of five buildings with facilities in support of research projects, documentation, and archives, and a library on the folklore of the region. Several major conferences and a number of small workshops have been sponsored here on issues related to the collection of folklore in the Gulf. The center publishes books in Arabic and English, as well as a quarterly journal, Al-Ma’thūrāt al-Sha‘bīya (MS). This article provides an introduction to the AGSFC as the primary resource for research on the folklore of the Arabian Gulf.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America 1989

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