100 for 100: Day 1 - Northern Algerian Culture
Preface: 100/100 is a challenge to write 100 words every day for 100 days. If I miss a day I have to start the 100 days over. Of course, when I set down to write I have to struggle to keep myself to so few words. (I'm more comfortable tossing out 300 in one go.) But the point is daily writing.
Ok then. I won't say these have anything common, just stuff I'm working on, processing or contemplating. Plus it'll drive to say something about what I'm doing. Today - this week - I'm researching the shit out of all the details and references in Jean Genet's The Screens. It's complicated and far reaching and since I'm doing it for my company they're leaving me the hard-to-find parts, namely, how do the natives of Algeria conceive of the afterlife. My (far more than) 100 words are from an email I wrote earlier today. I'm not at all done with this questions, I haven't really found anything like an answer.
What I'm finding is that the "Arabs" (clearly a misnomer but...) frequently practiced a syncretic system that blended Berber traditions with the Sunni Muslim religion. Given Genet's point of view, especially the insistence on the filthy & base, I think he was concentrating on more traditional practices and eschewing the more "purifying" efforts espoused by Islam. Evidence is how the Cadi is treated - a Cadi (assuming I'm reading Genet's reference correctly) was a judge that rendered judgment supposedly based on scholarly interpretation of the Koran. He had a lot of power, therefore, and would have treated directly with the colonists, who in turn solicited his favor.
The Berber tradition of marabout is important. A marabout can be either a holy man who could perform miracles and is often sought for help and guidance, or the tomb of a saint/prophet. This is where the syncretic nature of these practices gets really confusing. Because from one point of view marabouts had this power through baraka and could therefore make magic happen (including sometimes reviving the dead), and from another point of view baraka is a sort of grace and power of God that can bring about good things, whether in the form of excellent fortune or simply quotidian graces (eg daily bread). A person could gain baraka by visiting the tombs of holy antecedents - they are spread throughout the Muslim world - or by studying with a Sufi master or by the Islamic concept of Sunnah.
So exactly which way the assimilation went is really hard to tell. There's a lot about the marabout/baraka/magic tradition that orthodox Muslims (such as they are) disapprove of.
Also, from a site on Algerian etiquette (aimed at foreigners going to Algeria for business), there is a strong sense of reciprocal favors (I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine) and as such it's incredibly rude to turn down a request for a favor. And any ignominy one person incurs is shared by his family, furthermore some of it gets on anyone who interacts with that family. One last interesting note: gifts are huge in the culture, but they are typically opened in private. e.g. I should bring you a present when I come visit (flowers are fine) but you probably won't open or unwrap anything until after I've left.
I also wonder how they conceptualize time.
Ok then. I won't say these have anything common, just stuff I'm working on, processing or contemplating. Plus it'll drive to say something about what I'm doing. Today - this week - I'm researching the shit out of all the details and references in Jean Genet's The Screens. It's complicated and far reaching and since I'm doing it for my company they're leaving me the hard-to-find parts, namely, how do the natives of Algeria conceive of the afterlife. My (far more than) 100 words are from an email I wrote earlier today. I'm not at all done with this questions, I haven't really found anything like an answer.
What I'm finding is that the "Arabs" (clearly a misnomer but...) frequently practiced a syncretic system that blended Berber traditions with the Sunni Muslim religion. Given Genet's point of view, especially the insistence on the filthy & base, I think he was concentrating on more traditional practices and eschewing the more "purifying" efforts espoused by Islam. Evidence is how the Cadi is treated - a Cadi (assuming I'm reading Genet's reference correctly) was a judge that rendered judgment supposedly based on scholarly interpretation of the Koran. He had a lot of power, therefore, and would have treated directly with the colonists, who in turn solicited his favor.
The Berber tradition of marabout is important. A marabout can be either a holy man who could perform miracles and is often sought for help and guidance, or the tomb of a saint/prophet. This is where the syncretic nature of these practices gets really confusing. Because from one point of view marabouts had this power through baraka and could therefore make magic happen (including sometimes reviving the dead), and from another point of view baraka is a sort of grace and power of God that can bring about good things, whether in the form of excellent fortune or simply quotidian graces (eg daily bread). A person could gain baraka by visiting the tombs of holy antecedents - they are spread throughout the Muslim world - or by studying with a Sufi master or by the Islamic concept of Sunnah.
So exactly which way the assimilation went is really hard to tell. There's a lot about the marabout/baraka/magic tradition that orthodox Muslims (such as they are) disapprove of.
Also, from a site on Algerian etiquette (aimed at foreigners going to Algeria for business), there is a strong sense of reciprocal favors (I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine) and as such it's incredibly rude to turn down a request for a favor. And any ignominy one person incurs is shared by his family, furthermore some of it gets on anyone who interacts with that family. One last interesting note: gifts are huge in the culture, but they are typically opened in private. e.g. I should bring you a present when I come visit (flowers are fine) but you probably won't open or unwrap anything until after I've left.
I also wonder how they conceptualize time.