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Hydro-tribalism: water and intra/inter group cohesion in the rural regions of Oman

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Abstract

This article examines falaj system in relation to the tribal fabric of its beneficiary community. Falaj is a gently sloping underground tunnel or open channel that transfers groundwater or seasonal runoffs to the cultivated lands. Falaj acts as a core around which six socio-economic spheres form in a certain spatial order: shari’a public space, residential area, orchards, farmlands, pastures, and eventually falaj socio-economic hinterland. These spheres are the products of a systematic interaction between falaj, tribal communities and their economy. This article looks into the role of water in social cohesion within local communities and cooperation between tribal territories, which is conducive to the Omani variation of tribalism based on blood, soil and water. This type of tribalism is called hydro-tribalism whose socio-economic integrity is systematically contingent on accepting others in the group and cooperating with other groups. Some scholars mistakenly use the metaphor of “salad fabric” to describe Oman’s tribal composition, where different tribes live in harmony within the same territory but never melt into a homogeneous unity. However, this article likens hydro-tribalism to “solar system” where different groups remain in the orbits of their own tribal identities around a central falaj system, in the form of a complex socio-economic organization. This article concludes that falaj system is crucial in Oman’s sustainable development not only for the water that it can still supply to the country’s oases, but also for its social function that has always served to cement an organic relationship between different pieces of Oman’s social mosaic.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported and funded by Oman Research Council, Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation (grant ID: BFP/RGP/CBS/22/011) in the framework of a TRC project entitled “Aflaj Systems and Social Cohesion in Oman, Dakhiliyah Region”.

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  1. UNESCO Chair On Aflaj Studies and Archaeo-Hydrology, University of Nizwa, Nizwa, Oman

    Majid Labbaf Khaneiki, Abdullah Saif Al-Ghafri, Nasser Al Saadi & Zahra Saif Al-Abri

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  1. Majid Labbaf Khaneiki
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Khaneiki, M.L., Al-Ghafri, A.S., Al Saadi, N. et al. Hydro-tribalism: water and intra/inter group cohesion in the rural regions of Oman. GeoJournal 89, 29 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-024-11033-6

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