Free «Pearls in the Gulf» Essay Sample

Pearl industry in the UAE was the source of population income long before the discovery of oil. Despite the fact that pearl industry has been moved on the backstage with the rise of the petroleum industry in the region and cultured pearls, the role of pearls diving contributed significantly to the development of the Gulf region. Nowadays natural pearling in the Gulf has become a shadow of the industry (Ligaya, 2010). The major spheres affected by the change were the life of ordinary people and the way they behaved. The main idea of the paper is to shed light on how pearls developing industry shaped and increased the population of the UAE, how it changed their culture, lifestyle, and how it affected the life in the past in the Gulf.

A pearl diving industry has changed the lives of people involved in many different aspects. However, demography was mainly touched. No one knows when pearls industry emerged and when it began the means of earning profit. The earliest records dated back at least 7,000 years ago. There were registrations of some written communication about the sphere in 1154 when pearls industry was already a center of pearls trading. With the rise of natural pearls extraction industry in the Gulf, many people from the whole territory of UAE came to the region for partial occupation (Farn, 1986). Being a seasonal work, many families still moved from the rural areas to the coastal ones for being fully involved in pearling. However, according to the historical records, some people moved from the Gulf to Sri Lanka at the end of the seasons. Those, who stayed in the Gulf, have created the modern population of the Gulf region; more and more new towns emerged at the coast. The number of boats diving for pearls was once recorded as 1200. It should be noted that each boat had a crew of 18-20 people (“Pearls and pearling”, n.d.). All these people inhabited the coastal region making it living and populated. Even after pearling has become the shadow of what it was, the area remains populated, and nowadays it is still a better area to live in when it was before the inhabitation.

Pearling has changed the cultural habits of the local population having made them a new commodity. Now the region still refers to natural pearl industry having made it a source of prosperity and better living. Referring to the period when a pearling industry was at the peak of popularity, it should be mentioned that the whole coastal community lived under the rules and laws of this industry. People did not want to involve new technologies in the industry, as well as new companies were not allowed to interfere into pearling before the confirmation from the rulers of the region. People were forbidden to use technology. Thus, they had to dive for pearls with the stone in hands. The stone was tied with a rope, and a person dived with it on more than 60 feet (18m) down. When a diver had to search for the pearls and break the surface, an assistant pulled up the stone (“The pearl fishers of Arabia”, 2014). This ancient method of searching pearls has left a significant heritage to the modern population. Even nowadays people search for the pearls using the same method. Also, time value has become the major distinguishing feature of the people in the Gulf. Financial income has also changed the lifestyle as pearls industry helped many families to recover from deep poverty.

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The Gulf’s values have influenced the trading techniques and traditional work with other traders from other countries greatly. The rise of the region prosperity could not remain invisible for other countries. Persians and the European powers were the most interested in getting a part of the pearling production. However, the region has managed to guarantee the security of the lands and did not allow any foreigners to establish their manufacturing for pearls extraction (Ajlani, n.d.). As it has already been said, being a British colony, the government did not want to let technologies in the industry. Insisting on regional production, the state contributed significantly to the population development. The moral values the Gulf people acquired changed and became better following the development to make happy the region to become modernized and closer to civilized values.

Therefore, pearling in the Gulf has assisted greatly in the development and shaping Arabian new modern society, having increased the regions’ population and having changed the moral standards of the people. The heritage remained from pearling industry cannot be overestimated. Working with the reference to the old traditional methods and having forbidden any new technology, the Gulf population has created many customs and traditions that have united the region. At the same time, the development of pearling industry helped growing new cities and increasing the community.