The Lesser Gods of the Sahara: Social Change and Indigenous Rights

by Keenan,Jeremy; Keenan,Jeremy

• ISBN13: 9780714684109
• ISBN10: 0714684104
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2004-07-21
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The northern Tuareg (the Tuareg of Algeria) - the nomadic, blue-veiled warlords of the Central Sahara - were finally defeated militarily by the French at the battle of Tit in 1902. Some 60 years later, following Algerian independence in 1962, they were visited by a young English anthropologist, Jeremy Keenan. During the course of seven years, Keenan studied their way of life, the social, political and economic changes that had taken place in their society since traditional, pre-colonial times, and their resistance and adaptation to the modernising forces of the new Algerian state. In 1999, following eight years during which Algeria's Tuareg were effectively isolated from the outside world as a result of Algeria's political crisis, Keenan returned to visit them once again. Following a further four years of study, he has written a series of eight essays that capture the key changes that have occurred amongst Algeria's Tuareg in the 40 years since Independence.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Glossary	ix
Introduction: Indigenous Rights and a Future Politic amongst Algeria's Tuareg after Forty Years of Independence	1	(26)
From Tit (1902) to Tahilahi (2002): A Reconsideration of the Impact of and Resistance to French Pacification and Colonial Rule by the Tuareg of Algeria (the Northern Tuareg)	27	(40)
Ethnicity, Regionalism and Political Stability in Algeria's Grand Sud	67	(30)
Dressing for the Occasion: Changes in the Symbolic Meanings of the Tuareg Veil	97	(24)
The End of the Matriline? The Changing Roles of Women and Descent amongst the Algerian Tuareg	121	(42)
The Last Nomads: Nomadism amongst the Tuareg of Ahaggar (Algerian Sahara)	163	(30)
The Lesser Gods of the Sahara	193	(33)
Contested Terrain: Tourism, Environment and Security in Algeria's Extreme South	226	(40)
Bibliography	266	(8)
Abstracts	274	(5)
Index	279