Political ideologies and political forms in the Eastern Rif of Morocco, 1890-1910

Seddon, David

article

Political ideologies and political forms in the Eastern Rif of Morocco, 1890-1910

segmentary lineage systems reconsidered • Belfast, Northern Ireland • Published In 1979 • Pages: 91-117

By: Seddon, David.

Abstract
This essay examines the relationship between political ideologies and political forms in a Moroccan pastoral tribe around the turn of the century. It shows that the conceptions of patrilineal descent and political segmentation along descent lines expressed by the Rif were ideological, in the sense that they articulated, in stereotyped and caricatured form, certain features—and certain features only —of the local economy, had a relative autonomy and power of their own as explanatory and normative models of that political economy, and served the interests of a specific section of tribal society- the 'big men' who constituted what can be referred to provisionally as potential or embryonic ruling class. The article suggests that the image of the tribe as an egalitarian segmentary political system was, in this context, both valid and invalid in crucial respect, and that its co-existence with other political ideologies representing politics in a somewhat different guise reflects underlying contradictions within the local political economy.

Inter-community relations

Social control

External relations

Berbers of Morocco

HRAF PubDate

2010