This book focuses on social and cultural trends in present-day Hadrami Arab societies in Eastern and Central Indonesia, and the history of the Hadrami Arab people, which demonstrates an early form of globalization. For centuries migration has played a vital part in Hadrami adaptation. External forces, such as the expanding powers of the Portugese in the Indian Ocean and the Turkish conquering Yemen, and internal forces like poverty, droughts and political unrest as well as trading opportunities and missionary work instigated migration movements. While some Hadrami Arabs sought work in North America and Europe, other waves of Hadrami migration have followed the monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean to the Zanzibar coast, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. The story of Hadramis in Indonesia has largely been a story of success, in terms of trade, politics, education and religious activities. Despite continual debate regarding what constitutes Indonesian Hadrami identity, the author argues that they are still "an Indonesia-oriented group with an Arab signature". This book will be of interest to Southeast Asian and Middle East specialists and scholars in Anthropology and Migration Studies.

This book focuses on social and cultural trends in present-day Hadrami Arab societies in Eastern and Central Indonesia, and the history of the Hadrami Arab people, which demonstrates an early form of globalization. For centuries migration has played a vital part in Hadrami adaptation. External forces, such as the expanding powers of the Portugese in the Indian Ocean and the Turkish conquering Yemen, and internal forces like poverty, droughts and political unrest as well as trading opportunities and missionary work instigated migration movements. While some Hadrami Arabs sought work in North America and Europe, other waves of Hadrami migration have followed the monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean to the Zanzibar coast, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. The story of Hadramis in Indonesia has largely been a story of success, in terms of trade, politics, education and religious activities. Despite continual debate regarding what constitutes Indonesian Hadrami identity, the author argues that they are still "an Indonesia-oriented group with an Arab signature."

This book will be of interest to Southeast Asian and Middle East specialists and scholars in Anthropology and Migration Studies.

Whilst a large number of foreign and state initiated water management systems have failed for various reasons, locally developed water harvesting systems have proven their viability by surviving for hundreds of years. Whilst there has to be some recognition of the geographical limits and some questions asked about the quality of these water supplies, even with these detractors accounted for these systems often remain superior to those imposed by political and private interests, not only in terms of their reliability, but also in terms of their flexibility and more equitable control.This book aims to offer a closer look at local flexible strategies for securing water resources under demanding climatic conditions and during environmental changes. The research dealt with here aims to identify a range of initiatives that have been created by and for members of indigenous communities to address such challenges, such as traditional structures for collecting run-off and rainwater. It poses the questions: How have these strategies been formed and made to operate? What positive and negative lessons can be learned from the interplay between local knowledge, subsistence strategies, and the influx of knowledge and initiatives from the outside?As well as describing the function and social significance of water harvesting systems, a further aim of this book is to highlight the wider political and economic context of local knowledge about water harvesting and its uses, and the impact of contrasting management strategies on social development in the local communities involved. Water harvesting and irrigation systems form an important part of the vast knowledge that indigenous and local populations have of their natural environment. Such knowledge is embedded within complex social organisations, and forms the basis of both formal and important non-formal social networks. Indeed, together with the management of land, the management of water resources frequently provides the basis of social institutions and relationships to which ideas of belonging and community membership are tied.Indeed, water resources, along with other natural resources, comprise not only a vital element of subsistence, but also a vital field of social and political inter-action and practice.