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.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
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.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Community structure
- Community councils
- Settlement patterns
- Lineages
- Kin relationships
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Inter-community relations
- Social control
- External relations
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Berbers of Morocco
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2010
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Northern Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Historian
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Teferi Abate Adem ; 2010
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1968-1970
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1890-1910
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Rif, Morocco
- NotesAdditional notes
- by David Seddon
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-117)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 87672720
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Rif (Morocco)