Imazighen

Imazighen

Author: Margaret Courtney-Clarke

Publisher: Clarkson Potter Publishers

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13:

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As she has in her previous books, Ndebele: The Art of an African Tribe and African Canvas: The Art of West African Women, Margaret Courtney-Clarke turns her sensitive eye on women whose lives have seldom been observed. Her photos explore the remarkable arts and rapidly changing way of life of the Berber women of North Africa. 230 full-color photos.


We Are Imazighen

We Are Imazighen

Author: Fazia Aïtel

Publisher: University Press of Florida

Published: 2014-11-04

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0813048958

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To the world they are known as Berbers, but they prefer to call themselves Imazighen, or “free people.” The claim to this unique cultural identity has been felt most acutely in Algeria in the Kabylia region, where an Amazigh consciousness gradually emerged after WWII. This is a valuable model for other Amazigh movements in North Africa, where the existence of an Amazigh language and culture is denied or dismissed in countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. By tracing the cultural production of the Kabyle people—their songs, oral traditions, and literature—from the early 1930s to the end of the twentieth century, Fazia Aïtel shows how they have defined their own culture over time, both within Algeria and in its diaspora. She analyzes the role of Amazigh identity in the works of novelists such as Mouloud Feraoun, Tahar Djaout, and Assia Djebar, and she investigates the intersection of Amazigh consciousness and the Beur movement in France. She also addresses the political and social role of the Kabyles in Algeria and in France, where after independence it was easier for the Berber community to express and organize itself. Ultimately, Aïtel argues that the Amazigh literary tradition is founded on dual priorities: the desire to foster a genuine dialogue while retaining a unique culture.


Artistry of the Everyday

Artistry of the Everyday

Author: Lisa Bernasek

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2008-12-15

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 0873654056

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"In Artistry of the Everyday: Beauty and Craftsmanship in Berber Art, anthropologist Lisa Bernasek gives an insightful overview of Berber history and culture, focusing on the rich aesthetic traditions of Berber craftsmen and -women. She also tells the stories of the collectors whose generosity enhanced the holdings of the Peabody Museum. In a final chapter, she looks at Berber arts in the present day, examining how traditional arts are being used in new forms by Berber artists in North Africa and Europe."--BOOK JACKET.


Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen)

Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen)

Author: Hsain Ilahiane

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2017-03-27

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 1442281820

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Berbers, also known as Imazighen, are the ancient inhabitants of North Africa, but rarely have they formed an actual kingdom or separate nation state. Ranging anywhere between 15-50 million, depending on how they are classified, the Berbers have influenced the culture and religion of Roman North Africa and played key roles in the spread of Islam and its culture in North Africa, Spain, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Taken together, these dynamics have over time converted to redefine the field of Berber identity and its socio-political representations and symbols, making it an even more important issue in the 21st century. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Berbers contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 200 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, places, events, institutions, and aspects of culture, society, economy, and politics. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Berbers.


Berbers and Others

Berbers and Others

Author: Katherine E. Hoffman

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0253354803

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Berbers and Others offers fresh perspectives on new forms of social and political activism in today's Maghrib. In recent years, the Amazigh (Berber) movement has become a focus of widespread political, social, and cultural attention in North Africa, Europe, and the United States. Berber groups have peacefully yet persistently laid claim to ownership over broad areas of creativity in the arts, politics, literature, education, and national memory. The contributors to this volume present some of the best new thinking in the emerging field of Berber studies, offering insight into historical antecedents, language usage, land rights, household economies, artistic production, and human rights. The scope, depth, and multidisciplinary approach will engage specialists on the Maghrib as well as students of ethnicity, social and political change, and cultural innovation.


Amazigh Arts in Morocco

Amazigh Arts in Morocco

Author: Cynthia Becker

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2014-04-15

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0292756194

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In southeastern Morocco, around the oasis of Tafilalet, the Ait Khabbash people weave brightly colored carpets, embroider indigo head coverings, paint their faces with saffron, and wear ornate jewelry. Their extraordinarily detailed arts are rich in cultural symbolism; they are always breathtakingly beautiful—and they are typically made by women. Like other Amazigh (Berber) groups (but in contrast to the Arab societies of North Africa), the Ait Khabbash have entrusted their artistic responsibilities to women. Cynthia Becker spent years in Morocco living among these women and, through family connections and female fellowship, achieved unprecedented access to the artistic rituals of the Ait Khabbash. The result is more than a stunning examination of the arts themselves, it is also an illumination of women's roles in Islamic North Africa and the many ways in which women negotiate complex social and religious issues. One of the reasons Amazigh women are artists is that the arts are expressions of ethnic identity, and it follows that the guardians of Amazigh identity ought to be those who literally ensure its continuation from generation to generation, the Amazigh women. Not surprisingly, the arts are visual expressions of womanhood, and fertility symbols are prevalent. Controlling the visual symbols of Amazigh identity has given these women power and prestige. Their clothing, tattoos, and jewelry are public identity statements; such public artistic expressions contrast with the stereotype that women in the Islamic world are secluded and veiled. But their role as public identity symbols can also be restrictive, and history (French colonialism, the subsequent rise of an Arab-dominated government in Morocco, and the recent emergence of a transnational Berber movement) has forced Ait Khabbash women to adapt their arts as their people adapt to the contemporary world. By framing Amazigh arts with historical and cultural context, Cynthia Becker allows the reader to see the full measure of these fascinating artworks.


Women and Social Change in North Africa

Women and Social Change in North Africa

Author: Doris H. Gray

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-01-11

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 110841950X

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A wide-ranging analysis of grass-roots activism, migration, legal, political and religious changes as basis for social transformation.


Environments For Women Entrepreneurship In North Africa

Environments For Women Entrepreneurship In North Africa

Author: Leo-paul Dana

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2023-09-21

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 9811276137

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This book provides scientific evidence, both theoretically and empirically, on the understudied field of women entrepreneurs across North Africa. It provides insights on the domain of women entrepreneurship, undertaking critical assessment of overall historical frameworks, ecosystems and future perspectives of the region.Women entrepreneurship is among the most important and unexploited sources of economic growth in the developing world. Yet, despite much progress in socioeconomic aspects such as health, life expectancy and education, the gender economic gap remains unchanged. More needs to be done to understand the underlying forces and factors in the region to challenge the current status quo.


Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa

Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa

Author: Emily Benichou Gottreich

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2011-07-01

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0253001463

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With only a small remnant of Jews still living in the Maghrib at the beginning of the 21st century, the vast majority of today's inhabitants of North Africa have never met a Jew. Yet as this volume reveals, Jews were an integral part of the North African landscape from antiquity. Scholars from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Israel, and the United States shed new light on Jewish life and Muslim-Jewish relations in North Africa through the lenses of history, anthropology, language, and literature. The history and life stories told in this book illuminate the close cultural affinities and poignant relationships between Muslims and Jews, and the uneasy coexistence that both united and divided them throughout the history of the Maghrib.


We Share Walls

We Share Walls

Author: Katherine E. Hoffman

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0470693339

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We Share Walls: Language, Land, and Gender in Berber Morocco explores how political economic shifts over the last century have reshaped the language practices and ideologies of women (and men) in the plains and mountains of rural Morocco. Offers a unique and richly textured ethnography of language maintenance and shift as well as language and place-making among an overlooked Muslim group Examines how Moroccan Berbers use language to integrate into the Arab-speaking world and retain their own distinct identity Illuminates the intriguing semiotic and gender issues embedded in the culture Part of the Blackwell Studies in Discourse and Culture Series