On the eve of Palestine's violent ethno-national clashes of the 1930s, two simultaneous, competing industrial and craft fairs were mounted in Palestine: the Levant Fair in Tel Aviv (1932) supported by the Municipality of Tel Aviv and the Zionist trade organization Mischar w'Taasia, and the First National Arab Fair in Jerusalem (1933) sponsored by the Supreme Muslim Council. The Levant Fair invited participants from countries ranging from France to Egypt and the USSR, in order to brand itself as the first-and only-international fair in the Levant. Contesting the internationalist aspirations of the Levant Fair, seen as epitomizing the economic and cultural colonization of Palestine by Zionist organizations, the Arab Palestinian leaders of the First National Arab Fair summoned a powerful inter-nationalism of a different sort: pan-Arabism. Advertisements and press were distributed solely in Arabic and only countries with largely Arab populations were invited to exhibit. Each fair's organizers claimed to pursue a global outlook as part of the bid for local autonomy under British Mandate rule; the ability to harness a wide political, economic, and cultural network served as proof of national development. Previously discussed independently, I examine the two fairs in tandem and analyze the artwork exhibited at each fair as a potent index of their disparate approaches. While the Levant Fair specifically promoted the cultural strides of the yishuv (the Jewish settlement in "pre-State Palestine"), featuring monumental sculptures of Jewish agricultural workers by Zeev Ben-Zvi and crafts produced by the Zionist-initiated Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, the First National Arab Fair exhibited intimate portraits of intellectual leaders of the pan-Arab movement, such as Sharif Hussein Ibn Ali and King Faisal I by the female painter Zulfa al-Sa'di, and displayed wooden bas-reliefs and leatherwork with traditional Islamic designs by Jamal Badran. By examining these artworks alongside newspaper articles, British government reports, and institutional documents, I argue that the fairs reflect a discourse of political "parity" that began to emerge in Palestine in the 1930s, as a result of the oppositional threads of internationalism and pan-Arabism.

This paper documents and interprets the trajectory of ethnographic museums in Tunisia over nearly a century, demonstrating changes and continuities in role, setting and architecture across shifting ideological landscapes. The display of everyday culture in the Middle East is often looked down upon as being kitsch and old-fashioned. My research shows that ethnographic museums in Tunisia have been highly significant sites in the definition of social identities. It is argued that these museums, both in their processes of conception behind the scenes and in their scenography itself, have worked to diffuse and naturialise social, economic and political tensions. The presentation excavates the evolution of paradigms in which Tunisian popular identity has been expressed through the ethnographic museum, from the modernist notion of 'indigenous authenticity' under colonial time, to efforts at developing a Tunisian ethnography after Independence, and more recent conceptions of cultural diversity since the revolution. Based on a combination of archival research in Tunisia and in France, participant observation and interviews with past and present protagonists in the Tunisian museum field, my work brings to light new material on an understudied area.

The practice of community archaeology is still considered a relatively new subfield in archaeology aimed at engaging and involving local communities in exploring, protecting, preserving, interpreting as well as benefiting from the archaeological and heritage sites within their communities. The People of the Middle East has gone through monumental and unprecedented changes in the last few years. Many are displaced and are refugees within their own countries and in the Diaspora. Many heritage sites are neglected or destroyed due to the harsh economic, social and political realities. As a result of these realities a heritage-less future seems to await, especially the younger generation. Involving the community in exploring, preserving and protecting their heritage and the heritage of the land they live on, seems to be the optimal way to protect and preserve this heritage, both archaeological and cultural, through the creation of a sense of shared history, cultural identity and cultural awareness. My presentation will use the community archaeology work I have done in Palestine and Qatar to suggest a strategy of preservation based on active community involvement and participation in a collaborative process between researchers and community representatives. The main trajectories of community archaeology work will be addressed: the coordination and cooperation with various governmental, non-governmental and local institutions, the development of an active comprehensive public awareness and outreach program, implemented through various educational and hands-on activities and most importantly the incorporation of the rich oral history, folklore, stories and local traditions gathered through targeted ethnographic work. Community archaeology is a collaboration amongst all participants, which promotes a sense of civic involvement, heritage protection and leads to sustainable long term benefits to all parties involved. It is very much believed that only through the practice of community archaeology that we as heritage specialists can enrich our research and investigations, and local communities can enhance their sense of pride, ownership and identity. It is both a professional and an ethical responsibility for community outreach efforts to be an integral part of any archaeological and heritage project in the Middle East and beyond.

The Spanish Orientalist tradition differs from that of the rest of the European colonial powers and has focused more on a domestic “Orient.” Spanish perceptions of sartorial symbols of Muslim identity has been shaped by an internal Islamic history, and one in which Muslims represented a threat to internal power structures rather than in an external setting. With the emergence of the Alhambra as part of the Spanish tourism industry, the complex became a national symbol of Spain’s Islamic past. The invention of the camera facilitated Alhambra as a new object of attention, resulting in the large production of photographs of the Alhambra starting in the mid-19th century. My paper focuses on a body of private, professional and commercial photographs from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century featuring human subjects in the physical space of Alhambra itself or in photography studios displaying the mosque as background. While photographs of the Alhambra itself have been studied, no work has been done to study the ways in which visitors interacted with the real or imagined space of the Alhambra in photography or otherwise. The prevalence of Orientalist costume in these photographs reveals a new touristic rite in Spain. The practice will be read in the light of Spaniards dressing up as “Moors” in village festivals, and studio photography as a form of photography that is able to favor the power of the subject rather than the photographer, potentially resulting in a powerful medium of self-representation. I argue that Spaniards dressing up as “Moors” in this specific context is distinct from the European colonial tradition of cultural cross-dressing, which was infused with colonial power inequalities; dressing up as a “moro” invoked an internal Islamic past as opposed to referencing a living colonial Other. I also argue that the artificiality of the setting and costumes, the captions and the wearers’ body language in these photographs confirms, through the performance of an Other, the very Christian identity of the wearer. This act of cultural cross-dressing displayed a victory over a past Islamic threat by a Christian identity that persevered, reinforcing the contemporary Christian identity of Spain as a nation.