Tribe and Society in Rural Morocco

Download or read book Tribe and Society in Rural Morocco written by David M. Hart and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tribe and Society in Rural Morocco is a collection of 11 articles based on fieldwork and ethnographic studies conducted on Moroccan Berber-speaking tribes in particular, among the Aith Waryaghar in the Northern part, the Ait Atta in the South-central Atlas, and the Saghru. Although Arabs and Berbers have lived side by side in Morocco for many years, it is quite evident that the Berber element is very much more than just a remainder. Instead it is 'the backbone' of Moroccan nation and even the foundation of the whole North African structure. Its presence is still very strong even today (p.26). Three different sets of Berber tribal groups exist in Morocco: Tashilhit of the Western high and Anti-Atlas, Tamazight in the Middle Atlas, and Tharifith in the Rif. Today, all Berbers tend to refer to themselves as Imazighen [...] This collection is divided into two parts. In the first part, Hart portrays various features of the precolonial socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-political organization and customary law of various of Berber-speaking groups. [...] The second part of the book deals specifically with the two ethnolingusitic Berber groups in the Northern part of Morocco: The Arabic-speaking Jbala in the west and the Thamazighth/Tharifith-speaking Rifians in the east. Hart succeeds in making a classification of these two groups based on linguistic, economic, cultural, sociopolitical and religious differences... -- from http://www.jstor.org (May 5, 2011).