| Author(s) | Fadel Ayoubi |
| Affiliation | Assistant Professor, Geography Department, Faculty of Arabic and Social Sciences, Imam University, Al Qassi, Saudi Arabia |
| Title | The Role of Culture in the Social Development of the Arabian Gulf |
| Source | Journal of King Saud University. Arts. Volume 17, No 1. (2005/1425) |
| Abstract | Culture plays a principal role in establishing the national identity, in crystallizing the tracks ofthe social and economic development and in supporting the institutions associated with them. The more culture depends on originality and basic foundations, the more light it would throw on society to lead it towards openness and create reciprocal influence with other cultures without causing any changes in their characteristics. Only an original culture, one with humane dimensions, has the capability to create a civilization that leads the society to progress and develop ment. Culture in the Arabian Gulf, which derives its values and objectives from Qur’an and Sunna ( prophet Mohammed’s teachings), and from the rich heritage of customs and conventions has, in its course of development, passed through two stages.The first one is the “pearl” stage, referring to the economic base on which sea products such as pearls, sponge and fish are founded. This stage is marked by originality, by adopting the Arabic and Islamic issues, and by showing readiness for openness towards the Asian cultures. Such values have undoubtedly contributed to the emergence of special institutions, such as “family”,“school”, “journalism”, “Andalusian Devans” and “education”, and left clear finger prints on the social structure of the Gulf. The second one is the “post-oil” stage. This stage is marked by being the crucial factor in the revolutionary development of society, economics, education, informatics and the sophisticated technology which developed under the concept “capitalism”. To this one may also add the growth in population, in urbanites, and the various immigrations which attracted into the Gulf new cultures, cultures that are totally alien to their old culture of “pearl”. Today’s post-oil culture - basing itself on its previous rich heritage and strongly founded pillars, and leading its society towards a new culture - a culture based on originality on the hand, andmodernization on the other- is called upon for the emergence of a new social structure which cancope with the modern evolutions of the present world. The “pearl”, the “post-oil” and the modern cultures are the three axes tackled in this paper. |
