Transcript SW Asia and N Africa Intro

South West Asia and North Africa: An Introduction
Algeria
Oasis, Sinai Peninsula
Bedouin People, Lebanon
Qatar
Nile River at Aswan, Egypt
photo: Mark Chickering
Medinet Habu Temple, Egypt
Photo: Mark Chickering
Rub al Khali Desert, Yemen
Yemen
Photos by Amira Bakr
White Desert, Sahara, Egypt
White Desert, Sahara
“Magic Well, White Desert
White Desert
View of the Nile
Red Sea
Sinai Mtns
Physiographic Regions
There are diverse features interspersed across the Middle East and
North Africa:
•Mountain Ranges
•Coastal Lowlands
•Highland Plateaus
•Floodplains
•Deserts
Two Crucial River Systems:
Tigris-Euphrates in Fertile Crescent
Nile (White Nile/Blue Nile) in North Africa
Middle East and North Africa Elevations
Generalized
Tectonics of the
Middle East
Climate
•Variable
•Orographic Rainfall
•Largely Arid- consider it’s location around 20-30N
Climate in Middle East and North Africa
Rich Cultural Heritage
Turkey
Photo: Hadi Arslan,
Trek Earth
Domestication of plants and animals led to:
Agricultural Mini-Systems
a. Development of villages
b. Extended family systems, reorganization of land, resources
c. Specialization in non-agriculture crafts
d. Trade Networks
Ancient Sites of Fertile Crescent
Trade Routes in
Greco-Roman
World
Recent Empires in the Middle East
• Ottoman
•European Mandates and Colonies, 1914- post World War II
Colonial Regimes in 1914
Figure 6.11
Family
Importance of kinship and tribe
Family as physical space and
functional group
Gendered architecture
Gender Roles and Gender Spaces
public vs private
male vs female
role of chador or veil
Women at a mosque, Saudi Arabia
Photo: Sherine Abdel Rassoul, Trek Earth
Restrictions on Women
Figure 6.24
Contemporary Issues
Most contemporary problems stem from two things:
1. Boundaries and borders created by colonial powers
Examples:
Israel and Palestine
Iraq
Sudan – Darfur and South Sudan
2. Strategic importance of region to political and economic
interests of core countries
Israel and Palestine
Iraq, Iran
Case Study: Yemen and the Rise of Al-Qaeda
North Yemen- independent of Ottoman
Empire in 1918
South Yemen- independent of British in
1967
North and South join in 1990 after 2
decades of fighting
Socioeconomic protests in 2008 and in 2011,
fueled by ‘Arab Spring’
Elections in Feb 2012, Pres. Salih transferred
power to his VP, Hadi
Yemen – Economic Information:
Low income country
Reliant on dwindling oil supplies
IMF grant to support economic and political reform
•
•
•
•
•
GDP – growth rate -2.5 (211 country in world) (2011)
GDP per cap PPP - $2500 (181 in world)
Unemployment: 35%
Poverty rate: 45.2%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%:
2.9%
highest 10%:
30.8% (2005)
Frontline Video: Al-Qaeda in Yemen
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/al-qaeda-in-yemen/