Why does what we eat matter to the anthropologist?
A translation of an introductory piece on the anthropology of food, and why the table makes a good entry point for studying a society.
Published work
A Wasm on Stone
A line, two lines, and a circle. He did not write his name,
The palm: a tree, or an economic system?
The trunk is a roof, the frond is rope and baskets, and the date is food, dowry and provision. The palm is not one tree.
To a Palm in a Courtyard
They did not plant you for shade, they planted you so the ground would stay occupied.
Kitchen tools: what do small things tell us?
The mortar, the quern and the roasting pan — tools read as documents about work, time and the division of roles.
The AlUla inscriptions: a human archive in the rock of the Hijaz
The rocks of AlUla hold a history alive with feeling, names and fear — human texts that outlast time and tell what the official archive left out.
Sadu: the weaving of the badia and its visual language
Ornament in sadu is not decoration. It is a system of signs that people of the badia read the way writing is read.
Traditional dress between identity and performance
The thobe and the ghutrah are not merely clothing. They are a daily performance of identity that declares belonging and negotiates presence in Saudi social space.
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