Beyond “Man” vs. Nature: Pearling and the Construction of Gender, Generation, and Heritage in Bahrain

Abstract

Heritage sites and studies of the pearling industry in Arab Gulf nations focus predominantly on men who labored as merchants, boat captains, and pearl divers. They represent merchants as having reaped the greatest returns and divers as having endured the greatest hardships over the history of the industry. Recently published memoirs and interviews feature elder men’s recollections of their experiences as divers during their youth; these men focus on the hardships that they endured and attribute their success – even their survival – to chance or divine intervention. British records from the 1930s not only document the tribulations that divers reported; they also, as this article argues, depict human agency – instead of nature, chance, or divine intervention – as the main source of misfortune for divers. These findings trouble “official” representations of pearl diving, particularly the treatment of the divers, at such heritage sites.