Paper Short Abstract:

This paper examines marriage customs in Bahrain and Qatar from the pearl trade era to the oil economy, using oral histories to explore gendered labor, social structures, and agency. It highlights how creative practices and sensory knowledge reveal women's roles in cultural reproduction and agency.

Paper Abstract:

This paper explores the creative and sensory dimensions of marriage arrangements in Bahrain and Qatar, spanning the pearl trade era to the transition to an oil-based economy. Using oral histories as a central methodology, it highlights how storytelling, sensory practices, and lived experiences constitute alternative "routes" of knowledge about gendered labor and social systems. Drawing on Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration and Lévi-Strauss's theories of exchange, the study interprets marriage as both a mechanism of social reproduction and a site of cultural creativity, where women’s roles as matchmakers, celebratory performers, and labor resources reveal the interplay between agency and structural constraints.

This research situates marriage rituals and their associated industries within the broader context of anthropological creativity, emphasizing how oral histories—rich with sensory detail and poetic resonance—offer an alternative mode of representation for understanding identity and diversity in the Gulf. The analysis considers how women negotiate agency within systems that often subordinate them, shedding light on the liberatory potential of alternative cultural expressions and labor roles. By tracing shifts brought about by economic transitions and divergent practices within marital traditions, this study contributes to the panel’s reflection on how anthropology in the global South employs creativity and imagination to produce new forms of knowledge and “worlding.”