The Kabyle People

The Kabyle People PDF Author: Glora M. Wysner
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1447483529
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
So little has been known of the mountain people of Algeria and that little has been so inaccessible that this careful study of the kabyles is most welcome at this time. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing many of these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

We Are Imazighen

We Are Imazighen PDF Author: Fazia Aïtel
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813048958
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
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.

Berber Government

Berber Government PDF Author: Hugh Roberts
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857724207
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The Berber identity movement in North Africa was pioneered by the Kabyles of Algeria. But a preoccupation with identity and language has obscured the fact that Kabyle dissidence has been rooted in democratic aspirations inspired by the political traditions of Kabylia itself, a mountainous region in northern Algeria. The political organisation of pre-colonial Kabylia, from which these traditions originate, was well-described by nineteenth-century French ethnographers. But their inability to explain it led to a trend amongst later theorists of Berber society, such as Ernest Gellner and Pierre Bourdieu, to dismiss Kabylia's political institutions, notably the jema'a (assembly or council), and to reduce Berber politics to a function of social structure and shared religion. In Berber Government, Hugh Roberts explores the remarkable logics of Kabyle political organisation and the unusual degree of autonomy it enjoyed in relation to both kinship divisions and the religious field. Combining political anthropology and political and social history in an interdisciplinary analysis, this book further offers a pioneering account of the history of Kabylia during the Ottoman period and establishes a radically new way to understand the complex place of the Kabyles in Algerian politics..

From the Margins

From the Margins PDF Author: Brian Keith Axel
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822328889
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
DIVState-of-the-art volume by the major voices in historical anthropology./div

A History of Algeria

A History of Algeria PDF Author: James McDougall
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108165745
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 451

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Book Description
Covering a period of five hundred years, from the arrival of the Ottomans to the aftermath of the Arab uprisings, James McDougall presents an expansive new account of the modern history of Africa's largest country. Drawing on substantial new scholarship and over a decade of research, McDougall places Algerian society at the centre of the story, tracing the continuities and the resilience of Algeria's people and their cultures through the dramatic changes and crises that have marked the country. Whether examining the emergence of the Ottoman viceroyalty in the early modern Mediterranean, the 130 years of French colonial rule and the revolutionary war of independence, the Third World nation-building of the 1960s and 1970s, or the terrible violence of the 1990s, this book will appeal to a wide variety of readers in African and Middle Eastern history and politics, as well as those concerned with the wider affairs of the Mediterranean.

Berber Culture on the World Stage

Berber Culture on the World Stage PDF Author: Jane E. Goodman
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253217849
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Annotation Explores Berber cultural identity and performance in Algeria, France, and on the world music scene.

Diglossia and Language Contact

Diglossia and Language Contact PDF Author: Lotfi Sayahi
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139867075
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
This volume provides a detailed analysis of language contact in North Africa and explores the historical presence of the languages used in the region, including the different varieties of Arabic and Berber as well as European languages. Using a wide range of data sets, it provides a comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms of language contact under classical diglossia and societal bilingualism, examining multiple cases of oral and written code-switching. It also describes contact-induced lexical and structural change in such situations and discusses the possible appearance of new varieties within the context of diglossia. Examples from past diglossic situations are examined, including the situation in Muslim Spain and the Maltese Islands. An analysis of the current situation of Arabic vernaculars, not only in the Maghreb but also in other Arabic-speaking areas, is also presented. This book will appeal to anyone interested in language contact, the Arabic language, and North Africa.

The Berber Identity Movement and the Challenge to North African States

The Berber Identity Movement and the Challenge to North African States PDF Author: Bruce Maddy-Weitzman
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292745052
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Like many indigenous groups that have endured centuries of subordination, the Berber/Amazigh peoples of North Africa are demanding linguistic and cultural recognition and the redressing of injustices. Indeed, the movement seeks nothing less than a refashioning of the identity of North African states, a rewriting of their history, and a fundamental change in the basis of collective life. In so doing, it poses a challenge to the existing political and sociocultural orders in Morocco and Algeria, while serving as an important counterpoint to the oppositionist Islamist current. This is the first book-length study to analyze the rise of the modern ethnocultural Berber/Amazigh movement in North Africa and the Berber diaspora. Bruce Maddy-Weitzman begins by tracing North African history from the perspective of its indigenous Berber inhabitants and their interactions with more powerful societies, from Hellenic and Roman times, through a millennium of Islam, to the era of Western colonialism. He then concentrates on the marginalization and eventual reemergence of the Berber question in independent Algeria and Morocco, against a background of the growing crisis of regime legitimacy in each country. His investigation illuminates many issues, including the fashioning of official national narratives and policies aimed at subordinating Berbers in an Arab nationalist and Islamic-centered universe; the emergence of a counter-movement promoting an expansive Berber "imagining" that emphasizes the rights of minority groups and indigenous peoples; and the international aspects of modern Berberism.

Prehistoric Iberia

Prehistoric Iberia PDF Author: Antonio Arnaiz-Villena
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780306463648
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
Proceedings of an International Conference on Prehistoric Iberia: Genetics, Anthropology, and Linguistics, held November 16-17, 1998, in Madrid, Spain.

The Berbers

The Berbers PDF Author: Michael Brett
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9780631207672
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
The Berbers provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the Berber-speaking peoples.

Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen)

Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen) PDF Author: Hsain Ilahiane
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442281820
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Book Description
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.