Climate Variability, Seasonality, and Social Adaptation in Pre-Oil Saudi Arabia: An Environmental Anthropological Perspective

Abstract

This article examines how climate variability and seasonality structured social adaptation in pre-oil Saudi Arabia through an environmental anthropological and historical lens. Moving beyond deterministic interpretations that treat aridity as a limiting backdrop, the study conceptualizes climate as a culturally mediated force embedded in everyday practices, moral systems, and social organization. Drawing on environmental anthropology, historical ecology, and climate history, the article analyzes how Saudi society integrated climatic uncertainty into flexible temporal rhythms, socially regulated mobility, informal water governance, and ethical norms of cooperation.

The analysis foregrounds everyday life—work, rest, movement, and social interaction—as the primary site of adaptation, demonstrating how seasonal heat, irregular rainfall, and water scarcity shaped daily routines without producing social rigidity or collapse. By examining water access through wells, informal authority, and moral economy, the study highlights non-state mechanisms of governance grounded in custom, responsibility, and reputation. Comparative reflections with arid societies in the Sahara and Central Asia further situate the Saudi case within broader patterns of non-technological climate adaptation.

The article advances a conceptual model of social adaptation based on temporal flexibility, moral embedding of survival, and decentralized resource regulation. In doing so, it contributes to environmental history and anthropology by offering a transferable framework for understanding cultural resilience in arid environments. The findings underscore the importance of social organization and ethical systems in managing environmental uncertainty, providing historical insight relevant to contemporary debates on climate adaptation beyond technological solutions.