From kin to commodity: ecocultural relations in transition in Oman

This study explores ecocultural meaning systems and practices among villagers in Oman within the context of globalising neoliberal material-symbolic discourses. Our analysis illustrates ways in which villager understandings of ecological relations are rooted in traditional agricultural practices, cultural values, and spirituality. We identify themes that are fundamental to enduring traditional Omani ecoculture, including a core premise of kinship-in-place, and contrast these with recently introduced but increasingly dominating transnational capitalist premises in Oman including a premise of agriculture as a purely economic activity that is sustained by mechanisation and competitiveness. We examine the symbolic and material tensions between these contrasting ways of being.