Download or read book Amazigh Arts in Morocco written by Cynthia Becker and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Amazigh Arts in Morocco written by Cynthia Becker and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Amazigh Arts in Morocco written by Cynthia J. Becker and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Andalusian Morocco A Discovery in Living Art written by ‘Abdelaziz Touri and published by Museum With No Frontiers, MWNF (Museum Ohne Grenzen). This book was released on 2010 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Arts Gender and Changing Constructions of Amazigh Berber Identity written by Cynthia Jeanne Becker and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Arts Gender and Changing Constructions of Amazigh Berber Identity written by Cynthia J. Becker and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Berbers and Others written by Katherine E. Hoffman and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Arabesques written by and published by Art Creation Realisation. This book was released on 1999 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides keys to the understanding of Moroccan architecture and geometical arabesques.
Download or read book Tazz Unt written by Helene E. Hagan and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2011-05-12 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tazzunt presents a group of Berbers (Imazighen), the Ait Arbaa, who live in the Tessawt Valley of the High Atlas of Morocco, eking out a meager existence from the eroded soil of their rugged environment, by harvesting turnips, millet and maize, and one cash crop of walnuts. They depend also on a simple form of summer pasture. Tazzunt means limit: and it refers to an annual ritual which gathers around the shrine of a local Saint, Sidi Asdal, several villages of the Valley for its celebration. A ceremony, a feast, songs and dances accompany the rite. The book is based on a French ethnographic description recorded by a member of that group, Hassan Jouad, and a Frenchman, Bernard Lortat-Jacob during the celebration of the opening of the Summer Season Festivities, the Tazzunt ceremony, in 1978. The original English analysis based on this description was a spring paper written in 1982 at the Department of Anthropology of Stanford University. Because such material is so lacking in the anthropological literature of Morocco, and given the fact that American universities are beginning to become more interested in Amazigh studies (North African Berbers and Tuaregs), this small book might be appreciated by a number of people entering that field. Hopefully, it will also be of interest to anyone else interested in ritual and religious practice in Africa. The document opens with an introduction to the Berbers of the High Atlas of Morocco, who speak Tamazight, a form of a Berber language which has a number of different dialects through North Africa. A whole section is devoted to the analysis of their segmentary type of tribal organization, and what has been discussed in the past by anthropologists interested in segmentary structures of social organization in past anthropological literature. The various mechanisms of affiliations and alliances, recognized by Berbers (Imazighen) in this part of the world about the middle of the twentieth century, are also examined and assessed as to their function and place in the tapestry of relations not just among the Ait Arbaa, but more generally among the Berbers of that region. The presence of marabouts, saintly men such as Sidi Asdal, the local saint of the upper Tessawt Valley, and a maraboutic complex which antedates the arrival of Islam and has been incorporated into religious practice in Moorcco, are also introduced and discussed in a separate section of the book. The concept of Baraka (blessing, and power of blessing) is introduced and analyzed. Social order and the segmentary structure of social organization are singularly modified by the presence of these powerful saintly men with Baraka as opposed to the rule of elected, temporal chiefs, or amghars. A model of equilibrium, fluidity, and flexibility emerges from such a factor at the core of a structured, hierarchical society. The ritual of Tazzunt itself is presented, explained, and analyzed. An anthropological reflection on the importance of ritual, song and dance, rounds up the presentation. All aspects of the presentation of the ritual of Tazzunt and its meaning for the villagers and mountain people of the Tessawt Valley are backed by a series of poems and songs which were translated from their original Tamazight composition into French by Hassan Jouad, and subsequently translated from the French into English by the author of the book, Helene Hagan. The poetry is essential to the actual substance and meaning of the actions described. In addition to the importance of the poetry which accompanies the prose of the explanatory text, the author had the extraordinary luck to come across a set of photographs taken in that valley, around the very time that this document was being written. These photographs were taken by two architects, Anne and Olivier Fougerat, who were kind enough to share their beautiful photography taken in May of 1984 in the Upper Tessawt Valley of the High Atlas of Moroc
Download or read book Arts and Crafts of Morocco written by James F Jereb and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2015-06-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals the dazzling fusion of cultural influences in Moroccan arts and crafts Its unique geographical location established Morocco as a center of cultural exchange, and its remarkable arts and crafts are the product of a centuries-long intermingling of influences from other parts of Africa and the traditions of Islam and from the singular cultural alliance of the Moors and the Spaniards. Superbly illustrated with more than 150 specially commissioned color photographs, Arts and Crafts of Morocco illuminates the wonders of this thriving tradition. Dr. James F. Jereb’s pioneering account, based on his own first hand research, examines an extensive range of media: vibrantly colored textiles; jewelry in a range of exquisite configurations; original leather, wood, and metalwork; and an enormous variety of pottery and ceramics. These marvelous objects derive either from a rural lifestyle, with symbols and patterns that reflect the powerful animistic beliefs of the Berber country artisans, or from the cities, where Islamic tenets compose the cultural foundation. All of these works are thus endowed with a spiritually charged significance that determines their functions and ensures their remarkable beauty. This in-depth study is made complete with guidance on Moroccan arts and crafts from expert collectors and a revealing analysis of the belief systems, festivals, and ceremonies that inform the predominant techniques and visual motifs of Moroccan art.
Download or read book Art and the Jews of Morocco written by André Goldenberg and published by Somogy Art Publishing. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, the artistry of the Jewish community in Morocco has flourished - as much in urban areas as in the countryside - in metalwork, manuscripts, silks, wool, leather, woodwork. Often, this creativity has given birth to exceptional works that showcase the talent and originality of artists and artisans who have nonetheless remained anonymous. Originally from Morocco, Andre Goldenberg is an ethnologist who has devoted a significant part of his life to collecting the art of the Jews of Morocco, artefacts that show a unique artistic perspective and an extremely fine artistic quality. The extraordinary collection of objects assembled in this volume reveals the multiple facets of the art of Moroccan Jews, while the meticulous research that accompanies the catalogue promises to preserve this culture for future generations. This richly illustrated book constitutes an imaginary museum, carefully detailing hundreds of masterpieces of Jewish Moroccan art gathered from public and private collections in Morocco and abroad."
Download or read book The Teaching of Amazigh Berber in Morocco written by Fatima Sadiqi and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Blackness in Morocco written by Cynthia J. Becker and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A groundbreaking study of Blackness in Morocco through the lens of visual representation"--
Download or read book Art in the Service of Colonialism written by Hamid Irbouh and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Art in the Service of Colonialism throws new light on how nothing in the Moroccan French Protectorate (1912-1956) escaped the imprints of metropolitan ideology and how the French transformed and dominated Moroccan society by looking at how the arts and crafts were transformed in the colonial period. Hamid Irbouh argues that during the Moroccan Protectorate (1912-1956), the French imposed their domination through a systematic modernisation and regulation of local arts and crafts. They also stewarded Moroccans into industrial life by establishing vocational and fine arts schools. The French archives, Arabic sources, and oral testimonies, which Irbouh used, demonstrate complex relationships between colonial administrators of both genders and their interactions with Moroccan officials, notables, and the poor. The French co-opted some locals into joining these educational institutions, which respected and reinforced familiar pre-Protectorate social structures. The artisans become The Best Workers in the French Empire, and artists exhibited abroad and cultivated a European and American clientele. The contradictions between reformist goals and the old order, nevertheless, added to social dislocations and led to rebellion against French hegemony. Irbouh focuses on how French women infiltrated the feminine Moroccan milieu to buttress colonial ideology, and how, at critical moments, Moroccan women and their daughters rejected traditional passive roles and sabotaged colonial plans. France's legacy in Moroccan arts and crafts provoked a backlash in the postcolonial period. After independence local artists, searching for their own identities, sought to reclaim their authenticity. The struggle to define a pristine visual heritage still rages, and the author, by underlining French contributions to Moroccan artistic and craft production, challenges the conclusions of the artists and critics who have argued for the establishment of an unadulterated art devoid of most or even all foreign influences. As in so many areas of Moroccan society, this book reveals that the weight of colonial history remains heavily present. In this well-conceived book based on original archival sources Hamid Irbouh investigates how French colonial administrators employed French women to inculcate colonial ideology by establishing new craft schools for notable and poor families in Moroccan cities. The French intended not only to teach modernized versions of old Moroccan crafts, but also wanted to instill new work habits and modern concepts of time into the girls and young women who attended their schools. Dr. Irbouh demonstrates how French women administrators took the lead in this effort and also shows how Moroccan women absorbed their lessons, but also resisted the colonial enterprise. His is a novel approach to colonial art history, situating Moroccan art production in large social, political and ideological contexts."--Bloomsbury publishing.
Download or read book Imagined Museums written by Katarzyna Pieprzak and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagined Museumsexamines the intertwined politics surrounding art and modernization in Morocco from 1912 to the present by considering the structure of the museum not only as a modern institution but also as a national monument to modernity, asking what happens when museum monuments start to crumble. In an analysis of museum history, exhibition policy, the lack of national museum space for modern art, and postmodern exhibit spaces in Morocco, Katarzyna Pieprzak focuses on the role that art plays in the social fabric of a modernizing Morocco. She argues that the decay of colonial and national institutions of culture has invited the rethinking of the museum and generated countermuseums to stage new narratives of art, memory, and modernity. Through these spaces she explores a range of questions: How is modernity imagined locally? How are claims to modernity articulated? How is Moroccan modernity challenged globally? In this first cultural history of modern Moroccan art and its museums, Pieprzak goes beyond the investigation of national institutions to treat the history and evolution of multiple museums—from official state and corporate exhibition spaces to informal, popular, street-level art and performance spaces—as cultural architectures that both enshrine the past and look to the future.
Download or read book Traditional Art in Morocco written by Jan Weiser and published by . This book was released on 1963 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Matisse in Morocco written by Faye Powe and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
